Tucked away in Parowal, a small village of Punjab, there is a school with a unique structure that redefines the meaning of upcycling. Made of metal and concrete and infused with love and character, this multipurpose construction is winning worldwide recognition.

“Most people, when talking about recycling, move towards complete dismantling of the existing entity to create something new. While many objects may require it, in this case, we were faced with the challenge of maintaining the original essence of the object, while creating something new,” Prerna Kaleru, design director at Studio Ardete, tells The Better India (TBI).

Not willing to part with a bus from the first fleet that the school had acquired two decades ago, the collaboration of Ardete and Doaba Public School (DPS) gave rise to Bavillion- an upcycled geometric bus-pavilion in the school premises that serves as an open-air theatre, play area as well a museum!

Owing to its novelty, the Bavillion was also nominated for the prestigious Eurasian Prize – Architecture and Design Award. But, the origin of the globally acclaimed project comes from one of the most grounded emotions-nostalgia.

Preserving history and emotions

In 2017, DPS Parowal decided to retire its 20-year-old bus. This bus belonged to the first fleet of school buses that the founders bought on loan owing to the rising number of students in the school. Now with over 2500 students from more than 100 villages, the school has a fleet of 50 buses, making the retirement of the old bus inevitable.

However, parting ways with a piece of their history was not something the school wanted, so they approached Studio Ardete to reuse and create something out of the bus without eliminating its basic structure.

“The bus had already lived its cycle and had to be disposed of, but as it was special, the school reached out to us to design a way to preserve it while making it useful again,” said Prerna.

“Structures and spaces also need to breathe. Making them come alive is what we strive for. And the challenge of this project was entirely in line with this ideal. We knew that we needed to keep the basic shape of the vehicle intact while working around it. We even kept the steering wheel and the driver’s seat intact,” she added.

The interior space was thus transformed into a gallery space lined with multifarious panels. With comparatively less to do on the inside, the designers moved the larger structure outside, building a triangular prismatic volume jutting out of the bus, in addition to a deck installed atop the roof of the bus.

“The two volumes were intersected and juxtaposed to make the space more interactive and useful all around, rather than making use of the inside alone. We converted the roof of the bus into a deck which was accessible with steps that also formed a small Open Air Theatre. The deck was inspired by the curiosity of kids and adults alike, focusing on how they felt to stand on the top of a bus. Space might be small, but it interests the imagination of the people who get spectacular views of the surrounding fields from standing over the deck,” Studio Ardete spokesperson, said in a statement.

Prerna, along with the chief architect, Badrinath Kaleru worked extensively on the project.

Now, the 323-square-foot Bavillion, completed in 2018, serves as an example of recycling and circular economy to both the students and the community.

With bleacher seating for students and teachers, it serves as a congregation space on the outside. The interiors, designed with multi-faceted white surfaces with panels oriented in a line, offer a peek into the past with documentation on the school’s history over the past four decades.

“The school bus had served almost 8,000 trips in the last 20 years, and now in this new avatar finally rests where it belongs. This is not just an architectural feat, but also a symbol of how innovation and technology can be merged to create a sustainable tomorrow,” added Prerna.

As the creators proudly claim, the Bavillion is indeed a living and breathing symbol of sustainability infused with a bit of past, and wrapped in the marvel of modern innovation!

(Edited by Saiqua Sultan)

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Dhruvang Hingmire and Priyanka Gunjikar aren’t your conventional architects. Besides building homes with their own hands, the Pune-based couple practice a form of architecture that uses natural materials and employs local labour and construction.

Since they started ‘Building in Mud’ three years ago, the couple has used their unconventional techniques to design and construct six homes with three more projects underway.

Take the example of a recent project at a private retreat in Thoran village near Kamshet, a town between Mumbai and Pune.

Located near a forest on a hill slope, the couple first did a recce of the area to gauge what materials were available.

“We found a lot of black stone that locals used to construct their homes. However, we found that stone wasn’t used above seven feet of the structure because lifting it is hard. Besides, bricks were being used because the soil there is very good,” says Dhruvang, in an exclusive conversation with The Better India.

To bind these bricks, however, they didn’t use any cement but went for mud mortar. For the ground floor, they employed stone masonry (black stone with mud mortar). After seven feet, the local labourers used bricks, binding them with mud sourced from the site.

Besides the two floors, there was a small attic on top, built from mud, bricks and wood. The roof was made from a local timber called ‘ain’ instead of the conventional teak.

“When you use teak as a building material, you are promoting a form of monoculture. Today, we see many forest department officials and local agriculturalists setting up teak plantations that harm the local ecosystem. Instead of one, we use different types of timber like ain, haidu, jambul and shiva, sourced locally. On top, we went for clay roofing tiles,” he says.

Their client from Pune, however, wanted a low-maintenance house, as it was a second home; the interiors had to be designed accordingly. He wasn’t keen on regular maintenance. While the house was tiled like any other building, lime plaster was used to bind it. This took care of maintenance since traditional lime plaster is often chosen as a good candidate for restoration. It also strengthens with age, as opposed to cement plaster which develops cracks.

“We have to find a balance between ecological viability and the client’s wishes. For an earlier project near Bhor, the client wanted a rustic look to the house. So, we didn’t go for interior plastering. But, in the Kamshet project, we wanted a low-maintenance house. So, we went for lime plasters unlike cement, which is bad for the environment. Moreover, lime is completely recyclable and possesses a greater thermal insulation value,” informs Dhruvang.

Lime helps trap the heat during the summer and release it during winter. It also traps the heat during the day and releases it at night.

The combination of lime and mud, alongside stone and bricks, allows the structure to breathe.

When you use cement, you are obstructing any breathing that happens through the walls of your building, and that is why it heats up so much.

“After the completion of this project, we monitored the temperature inside and outside the house. Recently, it was 38 degrees Celsius outside, but a remarkable 25 degrees inside. So, you don’t even need an air conditioner. Even in summers, we don’t use fans, except perhaps in the attic,” he adds.

The project began nearly two years ago, but there were some on-site concerns because the local labourers were not construction workers but farmers who had to till their land when the season began. After building the first floor, the labourers had to tend to their farms. After waiting for the monsoons to subside, they resumed. However, this isn’t a regular occurrence.

Essentially, it takes about four months to complete the core structure, and another four to five months to finish the interiors.

Inspiration

Born and raised in Pune, Dhruvang attended Rachna Sansad Academy of Architecture in Mumbai, where he met his future wife, Priyanka. In college, they were influenced by a senior architect, Malaksingh Gill, a proponent of eco-friendly, culture-sensitive architecture and student of the famous Lawrence Wilfred “Laurie” Baker, a British-born Indian architect.

Dhruvang’s parents are also architects of repute who work on residential/commercial projects. While his parents inspired him to become an architect, the path he chose was inspired by Malaksingh. Priyanka, meanwhile, was a gold medalist who chose to pursue an unconventional practice.

One particular incident in college drove Dhruvang to his current path.

“During our fourth year of architecture, as part of our ecology and architecture elective taught by Prof Malaksingh, we visited a village near Satara, Maharashtra, a drought-prone area. We were sent there to study the homes built in the area—the architecture and material used. There, we found a small and beautiful mud house with just an old lady,” he recalls.

The students were eager to document the house and went around drawing sketches. Dhruvang ended up speaking to the lady, who had built the house.

She had ingrained her bangles into the mud and cow-dung plaster for the interiors, adding a personal touch to the design.

“She asked us whether we would like to have some tea. There was no water in the village for the past week, and they had only received two buckets of water from a tanker costing Rs 10 each. The lady had just one bucket left, but she was still willing to serve tea to ten urban kids. The house wasn’t in the best condition because she couldn’t manage the upkeep. But the ten of us who had received four years of education on how to build houses could do nothing to help someone who was offering us all that she had merely as a courtesy towards her guests! We could draw sketches, but didn’t know how to build a home, practically,” he recalls.

That’s when Dhruvang decided that he would not move into conventional architecture but work towards actually building homes.

After graduating from the Academy, both Priyanka and Dhruvang joined Malaksingh’s practice, working there for three years. The legendary architect’s projects were an education in utilising natural materials and vernacular technologies. Before taking his course on Ecology and Architecture in their second year in 2011, neither had any idea about mud buildings or sustainable architecture.

“He took us on field visits to his ongoing projects where we helped build structures with our own hands, right from making and moulding the mud to building walls, we observed entire houses getting built. We visited villages to document the buildings and local lifestyles as well.”

These site visits allowed them to understand architecture not only through the prism of technical building and construction but also through the socio-cultural aspects of the residents.

They learnt how locally-available building materials affect people and how their cultures and geographical conditions determine architectural designs.

Process

Whenever Priyanka and Dhruvang get a project, they conduct a preliminary recce of the location and its surrounding areas. They study the houses, materials and where these can be procured, and the technology used.

With mud for instance, different methods are employed to construct a house, depending on the climatic zone. Within Maharashtra too, the type of building changes if it’s in the coastal regions, interiors or the ghats. The couple adopts their designs and construction technology accordingly.

“We have an ongoing project on the Konkan coast. There, we are building with the red laterite stone available. We also use a lot of wood because traditional houses there are primed with it. It also helps in resisting lateral loads like earthquakes and high winds. We analyse all these aspects across a 20-30 km radius around the site to determine the building technology and materials to use,” says Dhruvang.

Under natural materials, there are a lot of choices. So, one might use basalt stone found in the interiors of Maharashtra or red stone known as laterite in the coastal areas.

Even using natural materials doesn’t make sense if they come from a place far off. Then, the building isn’t local anymore. While it is natural, the structure is not necessarily eco-friendly. Secondly, it has to be natural with minimal processing.

With wood, the couple does not polish it because that brings in a lot of chemicals into the house. Besides, the polish makes irreversible and structural changes to the wood. Instead, they go for traditional oiling.

A critical facet of their design process is the deliberate choice of going as vernacular as possible. “We don’t believe that a design needs to stand out and speak of the architect who built it. The more the building merges with its surroundings, the ground and landscape around it, the better it is. I think that’s where the architect does a better job. Our motto is learning from the vernacular and giving back to the vernacular,” he says.

In a recent column for a national publication, Dhruvang spoke of this aspect of his work, while reminiscing on their first project.

It was a farmhouse 25 km away from the municipal town of Bhor in Pune district, made between December 2016 and January 2018.

“Cities became the seat of modern development. The emphasis shifted from local to global, and while specialists like architects, contractors and engineers emerged, the skill of construction got generalised. Institutions such as hardware shops became one-stop solutions for materials and skills. But this “development” came at a heavy price. So even to build a house in a village, one now has to depend on nearby cities for material and skill. This has led to a collapse of the village economy,” he writes for The Times of India.

However, the Paralikars (clients) chose to employ a traditional beldaar, who manually breaks boulders into stone with extreme skill and precision, even if it meant the client had to pay extra, than use a standard stone-breaking machine.

They even employed local carpenters, who have the intrinsic sense of sustainable building design, and develop products with serious utility value. Local carpenters are not only extremely skilled in constructing, say a wooden roof, but also discern which particular variety of timber to use.

What you have at the end of a day is a stunning, yet sustainable home, which employed local talent. However, there is no point in romanticising these traditional methods and copying them blindly.

Let’s take mud houses, for example. Across villages, there is a lack of planning in building houses with little space for light and ventilation. It’s a myth that mud buildings are dark and dingy and require a lot of maintenance.

“We need to tackle the problem at its root, and not dismiss the material altogether. These issues can be dealt with better designs,” informs Dhruvang.

One impact of the project near Bhor was that the local material supplier, who was also the Sarpanch of his village, sought the couple to rebuild his house.

“Initially, he was thinking about demolishing and rebuilding it. After we spoke to him, he decided not to demolish, but retain whatever he could and modify the planning. It was a huge house with a traditional courtyard designed for a joint family which had broken down into three nuclear families. We re-planned it and did the roof again entirely in timber. The old look of the house wasn’t compromised, and we gave them the functionality they wanted. Usually, people demolish an old house completely and rebuild it, but this is sometimes unnecessary and wasteful,” he says.

Also Read: NID Grad Recycles Ceramic Waste to Make New, Eco-Friendly Tableware

What about the money? Are the couple sacrificing a lucrative career?

“We don’t think of our work as a sacrifice. It is a privilege to work in places that are beautiful and so close to nature. We don’t work much in the office, because the designing is done within a month. Unlike regular architects who give a drawing of the design to the contractor to execute, we work with the locals. They aren’t necessarily literate, but more educated because unlike conventional architects, they know how to build. And as Laurie Baker once said, our real teachers are in the villages,” Dhruvang concludes.

To know more, write to Dhruvang at dhruvang.hingmire@gmail.com.

(Edited by Shruti Singhal)

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“Design is a lot like music; the right balance needs to be maintained. One wrong chord and everything comes crashing down!” says Yatin Pandya, an Ahmedabad-based architect.

For over 34 years now, Pandya has been creating both personal and public spaces that ‘aim for the whole’ while using municipal and industrial waste as construction material.

In his conversation with The Better India, Pandya takes great pains to point out that his designs disrupt conventions, not the environment.

With this idea of embracing the perfect harmony between nature and the human world, he founded Footprints E.A.R.T.H. (Environment Architecture Research Technology Housing) in 2008, and since then, has been working towards creating a legacy of sustainable architects in India.

One such prominent project that defines the organisation’s core principles is the Manav Sadhna activity centre and crèche, in the city.

With its innovative use of construction material governed by environmental concerns, the project was hailed as a model of sustainable architecture and holistic community development of a slum.

It also earned him more than 10 national and international design awards.

“Indian cities produce nearly 27.4 million tonnes of waste is every single day. In Ahmedabad alone, it rises to 2750 metric tonnes daily. This is contributing to creating enormous mountains of waste, and we wanted to work with that and use it for the greater good,” said Yatin.

And the opportunity arrived when Manav Sadhna, an NGO, approached Yatin to create a community space at Ramapir Tekra, one of the largest slum areas on the western banks of the Sabarmati river.

Also Read: Earthbags to Compostable Toilets: K’taka Couple’s Minimalist Farm is Sustainable Living At Its Best!

In the midst of one of the largest slums in the city inhabited by approximately 150,000 residents, Footprints E.A.R.T.H created a community centre simultaneously addressing environmental concerns, economic issues and affordable housing.

Today the campus performs as a school in the morning, a vocational training centre in the afternoon, a health centre and gymnasium in the evening, and as a community centre and entertainment spot in the late evening.

According to Yatin, this attempt to use recycled municipal waste as building material was a first for the organisation.

“Using municipal waste for construction not only helped in reducing pollution but also provided an extended economic activity to the waste collectors and providers. We built the building material in-house, so we could create high-quality material at a cheaper rate than conventional options providing affordable and superior quality building alternatives for the urban poor,” he said.

It ably demonstrated the application of almost twenty types of recycled waste for various components like flooring, walling, roofing as well as ventilation.

“We also used discarded materials like fly ash from the thermal plant, municipal waste, wooden crates, plastic bottles and even glass, as raw materials. All of this was used to create one of the most basic components of construction-walls,” said Yatin.

He added that even rags, wrappers and other packaging material were used in the process.

The next step was to create doors, windows and ventilators, using wooden crates (used as vegetable or fruit storage), as well as empty oil tin containers.

“One challenge was to work with ceramic industry waste, as it does not get recycled for any other use. So, we decided to convert it into floor tiles and paver blocks. We also incorporated a way to use waste materials from construction industries, like broken stone, tile residue, stone cutter blades, metal scraps, broken slab and even old bathroom fixtures,” said Yatin.

The 59-year-old architect added that all these alternative building components created out of waste were lab tested for strength and performance.

“Maintaining the quality and durability of the construction has always been a major concern. And so, all our experiments were thoroughly tested before actual implementation,” he added.

As a result, the remarkable project not only transcended the boundaries of conventional construction but also provided design and economic sustainability for the beneficiaries, i.e. the slum dwellers.

Owing to this, residents of the slum were actively involved in the construction, in various components like creating crate walls, panelling doors, etc.

After the project’s success of using fly ash-filled bottle blocks in place of bricks to create walls, the blocks began to be mass produced by the locals and were utilised in sites across the city.

“The building activity was not one-dimensional. It was a holistic community building as the locals participated with their skilled and unskilled labour and even earned wages for the same, making it a holistic cycle of development,” said Yatin.

One of the many forerunners of sustainable design in India, Yatin has continuously been looking back into the past to find true inspiration.

“Most people now think that this is something new, something away from the ‘traditional’ methods of construction. But they are wrong. Using the usual—concrete, brick, etc. is not ‘traditional,’ it is ‘conventional.’ The real challenge is to look back to our roots, find and learn from our traditional methods of construction that maintain the correct balance of sustainability, and then innovate. The traditional methods employed to create structures so many years ago continue to prove their worth of timelessness by transcending time and remain fresh, allowing space for experimentation for the generations to come,” he says.

Yatin’s disruptive ideas have, thus, been writing the sustainable narrative of India’s architectural future.

“When I began Footprints E.A.R.T.H in 2008, my main objective was to initiate a research-based practice of sustainable architecture, which not only takes inspiration from nature but also gives it back through preservation and conservation,” he shared.

With almost 30 national and international awards to his name, Yatin has created a new line of design bent on transforming the socio-economic discourse of the country.

As an author, researcher and an academician, he hopes to transform the future of design through his projects.

“People need to know that there is a better and greener alternative to the conventional methods of construction and design. I always tell that to my students. In the last few years, although the trend for sustainable spaces has picked up space, it needs to be addressed with a more academic and research-based approach. A lot of design institutes have recognised this, and are the ray of hope to create a legacy of environmentally responsible architects and engineers!” he concludes.

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

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Vinu Daniel is a leading exponent of sustainable architecture in India. However, he never intended to become one.

Born and raised in the Middle East, Vinu always aspired to become a musician.

However, his parents wanted their son to pursue a conventional profession, so, after passing out of school in Abu Dhabi, Vinu moved back home to Kerala to study architecture at the College of Engineering, Trivandrum.

“I got into architecture thinking that it was a creative space, where I could express myself. I had no idea what was in store for me. Within a year or two, I was angered by the pedagogical framework within which conventional architecture was taught. Adjusting to it was difficult, and I felt that architecture had become all about satisfying one’s ego,” says Vinu, in a conversation with The Better India.

This is a sentiment that many experts have expressed in the past.

With advances in building technology, many architects have envisioned and executed luxurious forms and geometries. But indulging themselves or their clients in these ventures has also generated excessive amounts of waste.

However, a chance meeting with legendary architect Laurie Baker in his fourth year played a critical role in making him fall in love with architecture.

“Baker explained how buildings could completely co-exist with nature and avoid waste. He also told me something very profound about a chance meeting he had with Mahatma Gandhi,” says Vinu.

Inspiration

“It was also through the influence of Mahatma Gandhi that I learnt that the real people you should be building for, and who are in need, are the ‘ordinary’ people—those living in villages and the congested areas of our cities.

One of the things he (Gandhi) said has influenced my thinking —that the ideal house in the ideal village will be built using material that is found within a five-mile radius of the home,” wrote Baker.

Vinu felt that Baker’s words were truly inspiring and he could relate to them.

“In urban spaces, there is a need to include waste and debris in construction. This method would serve millions with housing needs and not burden the environment,” says Vinu.

After his graduation in 2005, he worked with Auroville Earth Institute for the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) Post-Tsunami construction.

On returning from Pondicherry in 2007, he started ‘Wallmakers’ which was christened thus by others, as the first project was just a compound wall built utilising mud bricks and beer bottles, which was lying waste.

By 2008 he had received an award for a low cost, eco-friendly house from the ‘Save Periyar’ Pollution Control Committee for the house which was constructed for a cancer patient.

Thus far, Wallmakers have mostly constructed residential structures, while also working on different religious edifices, commercial buildings and even pavilions.

“Initially, I found it very difficult to convince clients that sustainable architecture is needed in commercial buildings. Unlike residences, they require it more because these are spaces where a lot of people communicate and interact. Commercial spaces aren’t merely about the floor area ratio, but also about making people comfortable, interact and happy to work with each other,” he says.

Turning point

For Vinu, however, the penny dropped with the construction of the Valsala Cottage from 2008 to 2009. This cottage, which won him the India Today eco-friendly house of the year (South Zone) award, was for his mother’s brother in their native place Mavelikara.

“It was a difficult time for me. The masses didn’t accept my design philosophy and ideas. I had a tough time convincing people. However, one day, my uncle came and asked me to build him an innovative, beautiful and sustainable houses using mudbricks. He gave me a free hand to do anything. It gave me a lot of freedom to think differently,” recalls Vinu.

At that point, he was at a crossroads in his career, asking himself whether he could continue pursuing eco-friendly architecture.

“I decided not to condition myself into thinking in terms of conventional structures. I wanted to be free with my designs, break convention. This cottage allowed me to do that,” he says.

The cottage predominantly uses compressed stabilised earth blocks (CSEB) which are essentially mud blocks. It is “construction material made using damp soil under a high amount of pressure to form blocks. CSEBs are composed of dry inorganic subsoil, non-expansive clay, aggregates and Portland cement, are an environmentally friendly alternative to clay bricks,” says HAPPHO, a Pune-based construction solutions company.

What Vinu did was apply traditional climatic and ventilation techniques in a contemporary way.

Most houses in Kerala have something called a Nadumuttam (a traditional open courtyard) which is offered to the sky. The Valsal cottage similarly has an eye-shaped courtyard space at the centre of it. Additionally, it also harvests rainwater and redirects it to the plants outside.

“This allowed for more internal cooling. Since hot air is lighter, it would escape through the central courtyard opening. Meanwhile, the upper stories had a complete wall made of beer bottle jaalis and CSEBs. In ancient houses, there used to be an upper area, which had a gable full of holes, allowing hot air to escape the building. In our case, all the hot air escapes out from first-floor room jaali. Using beer bottles also allowed the light to flow in seamlessly as well. This design created conditions for natural cooling, making air conditioners redundant,” informs Vinu.

However, creative differences in 2015 resulted in the modification of the structure. The structure was painted, the courtyard removed, and the jaalis were changed in the upper room.

“It’s all about priority. Back then the priority wasn’t that the house is cool within and liveable. The focus was on showcasing it to others backed by misguided rationales like if the air comes in, it brings along dust and thus maintenance might be a concern. We could have easily worked around this problem by using mosquito nets, etc. Only now that climatic conditions have changed severely are people aware of why these traditional and sustainable designs are needed,” he recalls.

Using what we have already used

Since the very beginning of his career, Vinu has been using recyclable waste. In the Wallmakers’ latest project, they are using pet bottles to build an entire house alongside material like mud and scrap wood. It’s a composite creation. These pet bottles filled with mud serve a structural purpose as they act as compressors and thus are used as bricks to construct houses.

For Vinu, necessity and innovation are significant facets of his projects. Depending on where the client’s structure is located, he comes up with innovative solutions.

In one such project, the location where his client wanted to construct a house was once a dump yard.

How do you utilise the trash around you? That’s when he first came up with the patented debris wall and shuttered debris wall, which he shares with fellow architect Shobhita Jacob.

“Once again, it’s coming back to the Gandhian philosophy of utilising material found within a five-mile radius. Just look around when you walk out. You will find lots of waste material like plastic and construction debris strewn around. Abiding by that principle, I cannot ignore this waste. One must start thinking maybe this is new material because this is all we may have in the future. We must prepare ourselves for the day when resources we take for granted no longer exist,” he says.

One excellent example of how Vinu employed the patented debris wall was for a house in Pathanamthitta, belonging to academic Biju Matthew.

“While all other walls of the house are built of rammed earth with mud sourced from the site itself added with barely 5 – 7% cement; this debris wall is built around a frame of 6 mm steel rods and plastered 22 gauge wire mesh which supports the layers of debris poured in with intermittent watering, finished with a final layer of plaster. This wall made of 80% building material remains, 15% gravel, 5% cement and 5% manufactured sand is not just resource and cost-efficient, but also surprisingly strong and of extremely pliable form,” says this column in Future of Design.

The debris wall is painted over with waterproofing material. Meanwhile, the shuttered debris wall involves a process of putting a shutter and pouring the debris mixed with small quantities of cement mixture to hold it well alongside with the mixture of mud to avoid honeycombing.

Back in Vogue

With climate change wreaking havoc on how we live our everyday lives and the emergence of an eco-friendly consciousness among many Indians, sustainable architecture has gone from a model once ignored to one which everyone wants to adopt.

The advantages are clear. This is precisely why it’s time to hark back to a time when the mainstream didn’t embrace Vinu’s line of work.

As stated earlier, his very first project was the construction of a compound wall.

Well, he was initially tasked with building the entire house until the client developed cold feet, leaving him to construct just the compound wall.

Also Read: Pune Couple Builds Cement-Free Breathable Homes That Don’t Need ACs or Fans!

However, Vinu wasn’t fazed and instead used it as an opportunity to work with labourers in making mud bricks for the wall. This gave him hands-on experience in making mud bricks, a material many consumers want today for its cooling properties.

Today, it looks like Vinu’s time has finally arrived.

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

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On Republic Day in 2001, a major earthquake devastated Gujarat, killing 30,000 people and leaving half a million homeless.

There was considerable damage across the state, but the city of Bhuj bore the brunt of this devastating earthquake. To rebuild it, a group of local architects, engineers and non-profits came together, emphasising community participation, traditional home designs and local knowledge, to rebuild the city.

In 2003, this collective went on to become Hunnarshala.

At a time when disaster relief meant constructing prefab housing, Hunnarshala went along a different path altogether, assisting villagers nearby to build thousands of earthquake-resistant homes with traditional technologies such as rammed earth.

For the pastoral communities living in the Banni grassland area near the Rann of Kutch, they chose to rebuild their homes constructing their traditional ‘bhungas’ instead of the pucca cement houses found in cities.

As Elizabeth Hauseler writes in a paper titled ‘Housing Reconstruction and Retrofitting After the 2001 Kachchh, Gujarat Earthquake’:

A bhunga is a traditional, typically circular plan structure made of mud bricks or an interior matrix of tree branches packed with mud. The roof is supported by a vertical post resting on a single wooden beam that sits on the walls. Bhungas performed comparatively well during the earthquake. Shell action of the wide, low circular walls distributes the shear forces. Some bhungas have ring beams or some kind of connection between the roof and the walls.

“So, when we started working with the communities and asked what kind of houses they want to build, the initial reaction was ‘we also want to live in a ‘pucca’ house.’ However, on further discussion, they said bhungas are a part of the identity of this region and ‘we can’t live without them,’” says Mahavir Acharya, an engineer overseeing community empowerment at Hunnarshala, speaking to The Better India (TBI).

However, these earthquake-resistant buildings require a lot of maintenance, and every year they have to be ‘finished’ with mud plaster on the floor and walls. The women, who had to earn a living, take care of their children and home, did not want to be saddled with yet another task, and asked Hunnarshala for a solution.

“We built demo houses using rammed-earth construction—a technique which allows for round structures to be built easily and quickly—at the offices of the Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan, a local women’s organisation with links throughout the community.

After designing some round moulds, we trained artisans, who had come from outside and locals as well. Soon, locals built their own houses by using this rammed-earth wall, while we provided them with artisans and mould,” says Mahavir.

“Each house required two bhungas per family, so around 1400 houses were built at that time. These structures underwent rigorous testing, and they liked what we gave them,” he adds.

Hunnarshala also built the resort Shaam-e-Sarhad at Hodka village in Kutch district, which is a community-based tourism project run by the village, employing traditional bhungas.

In addition to the bhunga houses built in 2002-2003, the Hunnarshala network built houses in other parts of the region as well.

To construct buildings that were right for the region’s climate, Hunnarshala works with local artisans whose craft has been shaped by the local traditions.

“One workers’ canteen built by Hunnarshala uses slided walls for light and ventilation. The structure was built with reclaimed wood by a group of local carpenters. Implementation of these programs are within the hands of the community itself and their artisans, but not contractors and developers. This entire building activity creates new artisans, newer employment opportunities and expresses their cultural sensibilities,” says Sandeep Virmani, Executive Vice Chairman of the Hunnarshala Foundation, in a 2013 interview.

Beyond building and activism, the foundation is involved in advocacy work, particularly urban planning and low-income housing development. For example, in Bhuj, they helped about 500 families build their homes, besides developing a master plan of solid waste management and drinking water for the city.

Sustainable architecture

Hunnarshala regularly finds new hybrid and innovative solutions that elevate indigenous building systems using waste and other natural material.

“Across different projects, we have worked with a lot of industrial waste like silica and sand from China clay factories and levigated clay from porcelain factories clogging river systems to construct rammed-earth walls. We also build urban homes out of compressed stabilised earth blocks (CSEB), which are essentially mud blocks. So, apart from rammed-earth we also promoted CSEB block. Overall, as a consequence of our intervention in this regard, around 6,000 houses were built with these earth-based technologies. These industrial waste houses were built in Bhuj, in one of the relocation sites,” says Mahavir, speaking to TBI.

“We used materials like earth and bamboo. Even though steel and concrete were favoured, this region has a hot climate and temperatures vary between night and day, resulting in concrete cracking,” says Sandeep.

Post-disaster assistance to other states

Besides Bhuj, Hunnarshala has offered assistance to other states as well in their times of desperation. In 2005, when Jammu and Kashmir was struck by a devastating earthquake, Hunnarshala was called upon by the government to build 7000 temporary homes in the Tangdhar Valley. This is because with the arrival of snowfall in winter it would get completely cut off and then no houses could be built.

So, they went there with a big team of 10-15 people, stayed there for a month, and mobilised the community to build the houses without necessarily transporting all that material.

“In the Tangdhar Valley of Kashmir after the 2005 earthquake, the only buildings that stood were those that did not anchor their foundations into the ground. Known as ‘floating foundations’, they detach the foundation from he superstructure by placing a wooden frame over it. Trained engineers found it difficult to understand how this allows the forces of the quake to dissipate at the foundation thereby restricting them from entering the superstructure. This is the primary difference in the way tradition approaches nature (and life) as opposed to modern thinking; they do fight the forces but respect and use them to their advantage. We helped the community use this ‘isolated foundation’ to build 7000 interim shelters,” writes Sandeep for Think Matter.

Similarly, following the 2008 Kosi floods in Bihar, Hunnarshala helped build 2 model villages, support 15,000 houses directly and formulate a policy that facilitated the reconstruction of 100,000 houses, reaching the most vulnerable families in a cost-effective manner.

“Out of the two model villages—Orlaha and Puraini—one was built completely with bamboo and the other with bricks because both villages have different kinds of artisanship and material. As a result of the work done in these villages, a whole system was set up on how to proceed with owner-driven housing, from accessing credit to getting the help of engineers and master masons and finishing their houses. So, a system was built because of these villages, which could be replicated by the government. Many bamboo houses were also built, and we helped the government with the reconstruction of brick houses also,” says Mahavir.

Some of the innovative techniques introduced by Hunnarshala include:

1) Chemically treating to bamboo to increase the longevity of the structure

2) Rat trap masonry: A method of wall construction, in which bricks are placed in a vertical position to provide better thermal insulation.

3) Ecosan toilets: This is a closed system that does not need water, and thus perfect for water-scarce and post-disaster affected areas.

“The local masons were trained in these techniques and employed by the Bihar government to oversee reconstruction. Hunnarshala demonstrated the technology as well as policy implementation for appropriate construction by building 42 houses in Orlaha village and 89 houses in Puraini village and trained more than 400 people for further implementing the program,” says its website.

This is the same playbook followed in Odisha, Uttarakhand and other states. However, the organisation has also gone international, working in disaster-hit nations like Indonesia, Iran and Afghanistan, implementing traditional building techniques from other communities.

Interestingly, it has also brought these techniques back to Gujarat and taught them to local artisans. Additionally, as part of its work to strengthen the economies of local communities, Hunnarshala supports these artisans in starting their businesses like this women’s collective specialising in thatched-roof construction called Matha Chhaj.

“When Hunnarshala went to Indonesia, they learned about thatched roof panels and brought this technique to us. We made a thatch for a school in Ahmedabad, and this was a project worth Rs 14 lakh. All of us women got our business card printed, started doing the work, getting more work, and began to benefit. Because of that, our lives have been transformed. As women, we used think we shouldn’t go out of the house. But now we think that women are capable of anything,” says Naina Maheshwari, Partner, Matha Chhaj, in a 2013 interview.

Karigarshala

If companies or architects outside need their services, Hunnarshala helps them get in touch with these artisans. Students come from different states like Madhya Pradesh as well. “We connect these companies to artisans so that the client can pay them directly, but we guarantee them that these people will do quality work,” he adds.

Alongside reconstruction work, Hunnarshala started Karigarshala, an artisan school which trains school dropouts aged between 16 to 18 in carpentry and masonry.

“We thought of starting this artisan school because we worked with around 100 artisans in Abu Dhabi for four years, helping them restore their forts. After that, we thought why not start a school to train local school dropouts. It is a one year course, where we teach them carpentering and walling. There are two different courses with 15 students each. After one year, we handhold them for another year to help them get work, supervise their projects and ensure they become entrepreneurs,” informs Mahavir.

Conclusion

What Hunnarshala does is community-driven housing. Their idea is that people who live in the house have a right to work or have a say on the design. They do community housing where decisions are taken by the community from day one, from design, community mobilisation, supervision of the house to even construction.

“In Bhuj, we are doing a pilot project on slum housing—an owner-driven program. Locals receive money directly into their bank accounts and construct the houses themselves. We provide the format, layout, master plan and design of the house which is also decided by them after offering many options and conducting discussions.

After finalising the design, we share it with them, and they build accordingly. They have the right to do minor changes as they want with the support of our engineers and supervisors. So, it is an entirely owner driven program. With contractors and big developers, there is little local input, besides a maze of corruption and profiteering locals have to walk through.

Also Read: Pune Couple Builds Cement-Free Breathable Homes That Don’t Need ACs or Fans!

Bringing architects and engineers together with building communities of this region gives rise to a lot of creative solutions. There are vast knowledge systems that exist in our cultures. We sit down with them and take tradition forward. That is what the Hunnarshala is all about,” he concludes.

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

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NNeelam Manjunath, a Bengaluru-based architect has promoted the use of bamboo to construct sustainable homes for three decades now.

Manasaram Architects, a private practice she started in 1991 in New Delhi, before shifting base to Bengaluru in 1994, has been responsible for designing and constructing numerous bamboo-based projects at home and abroad.

“My tryst with this unique material began in 1999. While working on a project for the Raj Bhavan in Bengaluru, I was asked by my client to use bamboo. Here, I found a material with a lot of potential, which was rooted in our traditional construction systems and largely unexplored,” says Neelam, speaking to The Better India.

With the then Governor Ramadevi as their client, the objective of this project was to remodel a dilapidated brick building which contained the pantry and VIP toilet block.

“Bamboo-crete walls have been used with cement plaster for all the walls with openings left in the plaster to serve as windows. The project uses up to 60% of recycled material from the old buildings, including the under-structure of the roofing. The roofing is corrugated bamboo mat sheets developed at IPIRTI (Indian Plywood Industries Research & Training Institute), Bangalore. Also, a fascia of 3 mm bamboo mat board (BMB) has been put for protection against sun and lashing rain,” says this description of the project.

Advantages of using bamboo

Neelam lists some of the plant’s amazing properties:

1) Bamboo is a green, biodegradable and eco-friendly material.

2) It grows very fast. For example, some species of bamboo grow four feet in a day.

3) When you harvest the bamboo, it’s not like cutting a tree; it will again grow back within the year. Unlike, trees which you cut and then takes 30 years to regenerate, this doesn’t happen to bamboo. It is a very resource efficient material.

4) The material has a high tensile and compressive strength. Its high fibre strength makes it the only replacement for steel, especially in small buildings—the largest chunk of the construction sector.

5) Bamboo can also be easily processed and ensures lower labour costs since you can hire unskilled workers who can be trained during construction.

6) Finally, it does not require advanced energy-intensive machinery to make it usable for construction, unlike say wood or steel.

Moreover, this is the material used, particularly in disaster-prone areas.

“Bamboo combined with cement-based mortar can be used in residential construction in seismic regions, particularly in developing countries. Bamboo houses remain serviceable for much longer periods than other forms of housing in disaster-prone areas. It is durable with a minimum life span of 30 years, it can withstand wind speeds of up to 150 km/hr, is earthquake safe, waterproof, fire retardant, lightweight, cost-effective and easy to transport and erect,” says this study conducted by Manasaram Architects.

Of course, this also depends on how you use bamboo. Some people construct their entire structures with bamboo, which is inefficient. When one makes a sensible construction with bamboo, they are very safe and healthy, as witnessed across different parts of India.

Read here about Neelam’s office called The Bamboo Symphony in Bengaluru to get a sense of what it means to use bamboo to make “sensible construction.”

Treatment

A critical element of employing bamboo is how you treat it. Like wood, it needs a coat or varnish or seasoning to protect it from the elements. Like any natural material, even bamboo requires such protections.

“Since bamboo is biodegradable, it needs to be treated properly to ensure it doesn’t decay fast. There are various treatment methods, and what you employ depends on what kind of structure is being built,” says Neelam.

According to Anupama Mohanram, Founder of Green Evolution, a sustainable architecture firm, some of the treatment procedures include dipping it in a solution of borax and boric acid and/or removal of starch that would attract insects. Borax is also a fire retardant to some extent, but further treatment for fire could also be carried out by other methods.

This treatment, Neelam argues, also helps the bamboo last for a reasonable extent.

“After treating the bamboo, we need to ensure the presence of moisture so that the bamboo doesn’t split fast. For example, the water pond in our office was built to humidify the atmosphere, which also helps in the maintenance of the bamboo members. We also don’t allow the bamboo to touch the ground because it’s a hygroscopic material (readily attracts water from its surroundings, through either absorption or adsorption). We even set up a fascia of bamboo for protection against sun and lashing rain,” she says.

Challenging misconceptions

One of the biggest misconceptions surrounding bamboo is that it can only be used to construct temporary structures. The implication here is that these structures don’t last. This perception has retarded the growth of bamboo as a source of home construction.

“Bamboo houses in our villages are known to have lasted for over 100 years, and it needs to be made a popular building material of choice instead of limiting it to wealthy patrons. It is very well suited for mass use, but matters is how you use the bamboo and what other material you use to compliment it. If we can’t protect bamboo, we will be unable to mainstream it as a major material of choice. We have concrete and steel but cannot use it too extensively because of climate change concerns. We need some alternative materials. Timber is an alternative, but it cannot be grown fast,” argues Neelam.

Also, what many architects don’t know is that bamboo has been part of the National Building Code (NBC) under the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) for the past 15 years.

The NBC provides guidelines for regulating building construction activities across the country.

Besides its eco-friendliness, various applications, and structural strength, adopting bamboo also has consequences for the rural economy.

Nearly every town and city in India has its own bamboo bazaar. Manasaram Architects source their bamboo from the local bamboo bazaar in Bangalore, buying it for Rs 23 and Rs 15 for 4-inch bamboo sticks and two-inch bamboo sticks, respectively.

“When you buy cement, you are paying a corporation. When you buy bamboo, you are directly paying the farmer, who sell at these bazaars,” says Neelam

As a member of the Bamboo Society of India for 30 years and the current chairman of its Karnataka Chapter, she has pushed the cause of bamboo for a very long time.

At the moment, she is trying to include bamboo into the schedule of rates so that authorities can use it to construct government buildings, but a lack of funds is preventing her from lobbying effectively.

Also Read: Pune Couple Builds Cement-Free Breathable Homes That Don’t Need ACs or Fans!

She also says that what bamboo needs is greater research into its application. At the moment, she has 15 projects under different stages of construction with one going up to 2 lakh square feet. She has also written a book titled ‘Symphony of Bamboos’ that offers reader greater insights into this plant that breathes sustainability.

For nearly three decades, she has done her part, and clearly isn’t stopping anytime soon.

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

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The best way to predict the future is to design it.”
-R Buckminster Fuller

IIf you believe that a building is just brick and mortar, think again. Made In Earth, an architecture collective based in Bengaluru, is a team of four bright minds—Shruthi Ramakrishna, Jeremie Gaudin, Agnimitra Bachi, and Ajinkya Unhale. They have been redefining the urban landscape with sustainability-focused buildings for the last four years.

In this free-wheeling conversation with The Better India, we discuss Made In Earth’s inception, challenges, what it means to be sustainable, and its vision for the future. What stands out is how this team is living, working, and breathing earth.

The birth of the collective

A love of making buildings brought the four together, a process in which they learned how to express themselves and their strengths. What binds them is the passion and love that each team member has for the earth and a commitment to using natural materials to create buildings that are desirable, durable and accessible.

Shruthi says, “All of us have followed different paths during our education, work, and volunteering experiences. When we met and started working together, one thing became clear—that nothing other than Sustainable Architecture would work for us. We believe that a sustainable approach to creating buildings is no more an option—it is a necessity and also a joy.”

To them, the use of local and natural materials is not a limitation, but a realm of infinite possibilities.

She adds that they love the challenges of bringing natural materials closer to people—in their homes, schools, restaurants, cafes, offices, stores, galleries and fab labs; “rendering our traditional techniques to newer aspirations and lifestyles”.

The four paths before they merged…

This was an experience that also influenced Jeremie. He elaborates, “Conversations with them convinced me of the necessity to bring back some soul in our lives, at every level—food, construction, clothing. I believe that where there is a soul, there is sustainability.”

Keeping these lessons in mind, they collaborated on Made In Earth.

For Ajinkya, sustainability is an obvious solution to the problems staring at humanity. He says, “The choice of sustainable building materials came from a very simple and blatant realisation of what is good for the environment.”

While the three started the collective, they met Agnimitra at a workshop in the Tiruvannamalai hills. He says, “The workshop was held at the edge of a forest, with volunteers from all over, coming together to build a forest school. It was here that I first experienced building with the earth. In the two weeks that followed, we moulded bricks, mixed mortar and built a forest school! Knee deep in a pit of earth mortar, I realised that this was it, and then there was no looking back.”

Why is sustainability the key to everything?

“It is a matter of common sense really,” says, Shruthi, “If we agree that we are headed towards a future that is in trouble, we need to figure out alternatives. But these need not be perceived or lived as a compromise.”

A lot of the industrial materials currently in use, such as paints, varnishes, glue, release volatile organic compounds (VOC) in our living spaces; continuous exposure to these chemicals interferes with our respiratory systems. One can only imagine their effect on the construction workers. The group insists that our buildings need to breathe!

The key to practice sustainability in the long-term is to find joy in it rather than looking at it as a constraint or compromise.

It has to become a way of life, rather than being thrust upon people, they say.

When asked about any challenges while dealing with clients, Shruthi categorically says, “We have never taken on the task of convincing anybody about building with eco-friendly materials. It is not a choice that can be imposed. It should be a desire that stems from a deeper understanding of sustainability.”

Fundamentally, clients come to them when they have already decided on a sustainable lifestyle. They tell me that they are an architectural firm with an edge but by no means, “the evangelists of sustainability”.

Does a sustainable home cost more to build and maintain?

A common concern when people are making the shift, Shruthi clarifies that a house built with ecological materials will cost the same, if not lesser in some cases.

Living in an ecological home, however, is a whole new feeling.

It is a relationship with a house that breathes, the values of which can only be felt through experience.

A well-designed, modern and earth-engineered home does not present the same issues of maintenance on the earth as a traditional building. Through design and detailing, the maintenance of these buildings can be further reduced to a minimum.

Also Read: What Exactly Makes Your Purchase ‘Fair Trade’ & Why You Should Care

“Very early into working in Bengaluru, we realised that not all our interventions could be from scratch. Renovation and restoration of existing buildings, and altering interiors to create healthy living spaces, soon became very real needs. To answer these, we focused on developing natural plasters, natural paints, and artisanal flooring finishes.”

In addition to being locally available and requiring very less energy to produce, these natural plasters can also regulate temperature and humidity. Devoid of chemicals, they are healthy and eco-friendly. And of course, there is an intrinsic beauty in the subtle tones and textures of lime and clay on the walls.

How ecologically-friendly are the materials used?

Explaining how Made In Earth functions, Shruthi says that two fundamental directions drive the studio.

“Firstly, you must really ‘know’ your material, and become friends with it. We are constantly experimenting with new materials and new techniques, especially with the earth. For example, all of the natural finishes we propose for our projects, go through an intensive sampling process. Secondly, you must get your hands dirty. Our work connects us to our medium intensely. The process of moulding with one’s hands requires a strong understanding of the material and a deliberate intention for its use. We often dive into the construction site ourselves, both to try out new techniques as well as to train our mason teams.”

They often work with wood, stone, fly ash, straw, rice husk, and thatch, combined with concrete, steel, glass, and ceramics.

She says, “There is a place for all these materials, and when applied with imagination, and in the right context, they come together to create something that is both responsible and beautiful.”

Their love for clay and lime binds their studio together, quite literally.

There is more awareness now about how the construction sector is responsible for a major share of the emission of greenhouse gases and the culprit of massive destruction of ecosystems, not to mention the negative impact of the materials. In this regard, the work of groups like Make in Earth is crucial.

Shruthi observes, “The answer is not to find ‘THE’ perfect material or technique. Fundamentally, it is about looking beyond the bag of cement, the sheet of plywood, the layer of laminate, the bucket of chemical paint, and understand what they are made of, what processes they have gone through, and what impact they will have on your health and the eco-systems, and look for alternatives. There are no perfect solutions; it is all about finding a good balance between several parameters.”

From residential homes to cafes and experiential centres, these architects have handled all kinds of projects.

They also organise various hands-on workshops and training sessions for individuals and institutions, sharing their experiences in sustainable building practices.

You May Also Like: Gaia Grid: One Man’s Attempt to Create a Self-Sustaining Community in Kerala

To know more about Made In Earth and consult their services, reach them here.

(Edited by Shruti Singhal)

Images courtesy: Made In Earth

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Located at the foothills of Shivalik Range, Chandigarh city is known as one of the best experiments in urban planning and modern architecture in the 20th century, and legendary French architect Le Corbusier is often credited with planning and designing it.

However, standing alongside Le Corbusier, were other visionaries like Pierre Jeanneret, Maxwell Fry, Jane Drew, and India’s first qualified woman architect Urmila Eulie Chowdhury.

Popularly known as Eulie, she closely worked with Le Corbusier through two stints as a senior architect (1951-63 and 1968-70) planning the design and construction of Chandigarh and taking care of his correspondence with Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

Eulie also designed the main block of the Polytechnic for Women, the Hostel Block for the Home Science College, St John’s School, residential complexes for ministers, multi-storied government housing complexes, government schools and city centres of Amritsar and Mohali.

From 1971-76, as Chief Architect for Chandigarh, she took over responsibility for planning the second phase of its expansion, besides designing the new townships associated with it.

In other words, it’s impossible to tell the story of Chandigarh as a modern Indian city without talking about Eulie Chowdhury.

Born in Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh in 1923, Eulie grew up in a cosmopolitan Anglo-Indian household.

With a globe-trotting diplomat for a father, she earned a Cambridge School Certificate from Kobe, Japan, studied architecture from the University of Sydney, learnt the piano at the Australian city’s Conservatory of Music of the Julian Ashbourn School of Art and picked up a diploma in ceramics from an institution in Englewood, New Jersey.

Working in the United States until 1951, she eventually returned to India after discovering an opportunity to work with Le Corbusier in planning and designing Chandigarh from scratch.

Her husband Jugal Kishore Chowdhary, an Assamese, was a consulting architect with the Punjab government.

Starting with the High Court, which is the first structure Le Corbusier designed, Eulie went onto help prepare meticulous drawings of Geometric Hill, Tower of Shadows and Martyrs Memorial—all standout modern monuments in the city today.

Aside from designing various educational institutions and ministerial residences alongside Pierre Jeanneret, she was also instrumental in developing wooden furniture for government offices in the city.

“All the furniture in the buildings of the Capitol complex and the Panjab University’s Gandhi Bhavan, library building and the Guest House had been designed by her,” says this 1996 article by Sumit Kaur, who was the former Chief Architect of Chandigarh.

Outside of Chandigarh, she led the team that designed the Talwara Township, Adarsh (model) schools across Punjab and cotton spinning mills in Kothapura and Markfed.

Aside from being a pioneer for women in the traditionally male-dominated field of architecture, she was also a very able administrator, holding positions like Chief Architect for Haryana (1970-71) and Chief Architect of Punjab (1976-81) before her eventual retirement on October 31, 1981.

Her time in the administration was marked by stern discipline, punctuality and efficiency in a field dominated by men.

“During this period, I found her most disciplined, very hard taskmaster, and thorough professional fully focussed on architecture. Never ever we found her deviating from the main subject even for a few minutes. Whenever we were to meet her to show some drawings, we had to send a request slip to her room and then we were called inside at her convenience so as not to distract her from the work in her hand,” writes Sarbjit Bahga for World Architecture.

Eulie also taught at the Chandigarh College of Architecture (1966-71) and also took up the office of principal at the School of Architecture and Planning (1963-65) in Delhi.

“She was a great teacher and an imposing personality. The students were in so much awe of her and were so mesmerized by her that they could not ask questions,” says one student.

Her design principles, meanwhile, were inspired by both Le Corbusier and Jeanneret, Corbusier’s cousin.

“Chowdhury generally followed Le Corbusier’s concepts and scale in her building designs, exemplifying the principles of geometric compositions and honesty of materials. She also developed her own distinct modernist design vocabulary. She believed in simplicity and boldness as well as economy and workability,” writes Madhavi Desiar in her book ‘Women Architects and Modernism in India: Narratives and Contemporary Practices’.

However, Bahga takes another position on her outlook to design, saying her style was closer to Jeanneret than Le Corbusier.

“Eulie Chowdhury’s architecture bears the footprints of more of Pierre Jeanneret and less of Le Corbusier. Her architecture had the ingredients of purity, simplicity, truthfulness, humbleness, minimalism, and economy. An overview of her buildings proves the above discourse true. She was more fascinated by the use of brick on external surfaces, occasionally punctuated by plastered and white-washed surfaces. Unlike Le Corbusier, she very rarely designed buildings in exposed concrete,” writes Bahga.

Elected as the first Indian woman to become a fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, she was also a fellow of Indian Institute of Architects.

Having said all that, Eulie’s life outside the world of architecture was as fascinating. A cosmopolitan woman at heart, she was a remarkably skilled painter as well, holding her exhibitions in the city.

Following retirement, she set up the Alliance Francaise de Chandigarh in 1983 and regularly wrote on a wide variety of subjects for the Saturday Plus supplement of The Tribune newspaper.

Also Read: Pune Couple Builds Cement-Free Breathable Homes That Don’t Need ACs or Fans!

She eventually went on to translate Le Corbusier’s book, ‘Three Human Establishments,’ from French to English and wrote a book—’Memories of Le Corbusier,’ which chronicles her time with the architect.

A remarkable personality, she blazed a trail for many women architects in India to impose themselves in this field.

Her contributions will never be forgotten.

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

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For over three decades, Padma Shri recipient Gopal Shankar has been at the forefront of sustainable architecture in not just India, but around the world.

Starting the Habitat Technology Group, the largest non-profit in the shelter sector in India committed to sustainable building solutions, cost-efficient, community-driven and eco-friendly architecture, Architect Shankar has been at the forefront of constructing nearly 1 million mass housing units (and over 100,000 green buildings) in more than five countries.

From constructing the first township built with green building technology in India, which contains 600 houses, a community centre and temple, in Sirumugai, Coimbatore in 1995 to the largest earth building in the world measuring over 600,000 square feet in Bangladesh in 2006, Architect Shankar has religiously taken on the cause of sustainable architecture with his blood, sweat and tears, battling hostile contractors, the establishment and naysayers.

More importantly, however, from his office in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, he has empowered those living on the margins to build quality homes with their meagre resources. Today, vegetable vendors and traditional fishermen in the city come to his office to design their homes. The masses of this country have an architect they can approach.

Origins

Born in present-day Tanzania (East Africa), Architect Shankar’s father was stationed as a civil servant for the British colonial administration. His mother, who came from a small village in Central Kerala, was a Swahili teacher.

However, just years after the country attained Independence under the leadership of Julius Nyerere, his parents were given the option of migrating to England. However, unlike a majority Indian origin residents at the time, his father chose to come back to India.

The family first moved to a small town in Central Kerala, before permanently moving to Thiruvananthapuram. Obtaining his basic degree in architecture from the College of Engineering, Kerala University, he went on to finish his Master’s degree in Housing from Birmingham School of Architecture, United Kingdom.

Early struggles

“When my family came back to Kerala, I had two issues. One, I had a serious speech impediment, and would stammer while talking. I also felt a profound sense of loneliness because I didn’t understand Malayalam at the time. However, writing letters on the mud floor of our courtyard, I mastered the language in just one year, although speech did remain a concern,” says Architect G Shankar, in an exclusive conversation with The Better India (TBI).

A prodigy in school, he acquired a real interest in existential philosophy when he was just a 12-year-old. Reading the Malayalam translation of Albert Camus, Jean Paul Sartre, and other writers of the existentialist school, it had a profound effect on him.

“Even today, I abide by the dictum, ‘Life is that which decomposes at every moment; it is a monotonous loss of light, an insipid dissolution, without sceptres, without glories, without haloes.’ This has actually defined my journey. However, at that age, there was also a real zest for life. I was caught in this philosophical conflict very early. For a few months, I had even stopped studying and going to school despite topping various state-level school exams. Fortunately, my parents got wind of the situation and brought me back to school,” he recalls.

What brought him out of this quagmire was joining the Kerala Sasthra Sahithya Parishad, a voluntary organisation working towards spreading the benefits of science and rational thought to the people. He would visit the homes of uneducated people to teach them how to read and write. As a middle-school boy, he would go to the local market selling low-cost smokeless chulhas to the poor.

“Coming from a middle-class family, this experience was my first interface with the marginalised, deprived and the dispossessed. It was a defining experience. At the age of 12, I was already closer to people who didn’t have a meaningful tomorrow. As part of the literacy movement, I would visit the homes of traditional fishermen, eat and live with them and educate them after they came back from work,” recalls Architect Shankar.

At the age of 13, Shankar made the decision that whatever he did later in life should result in a meaningful intervention for people living on the margins. Something, which paved the way forward for Shankar towards architecture.

“It was through architecture that I could reach out to millions of people and hold hands with them. It was the better engineering discipline for me,” he adds.

Propelling this spirit forward at the time was legendary Lawrence Wilfred “Laurie” Baker, a British-born Indian architect and pioneer of sustainable architecture in India.

“I was fortunate to grow up watching and studying Laurie Baker’s buildings. Even at my age today, I continue to get inspired by his buildings, despite massive differences of opinion on architectural design. Having said that, he was on the right track. He was one person who understood India and brought Indianess into our structures with an emphasis on the local. We needed a man from England to disseminate Gandhian values to Indian architecture. I always consider him a mentor, despite never working with him,” he says.

For Architect Shankar, the design of any building must rest on some fundamental people-centred and value based parameters—eco sensitivity, cost efficiency, energy efficiency and disaster mitigant. This naturally translates into how he selects his material and equipment.

“My focus is on the local availability of any material. This is fundamental and the platform upon which you develop a sustainable design. Local materials and resources are critical components of sustainable development. With local material comes utilising local capacities to build the structure. Another key factor is eco-sensitivity. Any material that does not fit this mould is unacceptable. Finally, the material needs to be both energy and cost efficient as well. These are the basic factors I take into account. When I build in Kerala, for instance, I look at bamboo because it’s locally found and meets my strength requirements. It is a significant replacement for steel, matching its tensile strength,” he says.

“See, cement and steel eat up a lot of energy during the production process. That is why we are trying to stay away from them. Instead, we are using earth building material, which is both cost effective and cools your home. My own office, which is a six-storeyed building, is completely made of earth. While people have a torrid time outside the office during summers, it is really cool inside,” adds Architect Shankar.

Before earth, it was exposed brickwork. However, more than 15 years ago, he realised that brick isn’t very eco-sensitive because making it requires burning a lot of wood. That’s when he turned to materials like earth. Although weaknesses exist, he has made upgrades to it.

When choosing a project to work on, the famed architect does look at the basic physical requirements like climate, environment, vistas, terrain, accessibility and connectivity, among other factors. However, what sets him apart is that he also ascertains other needs of the person he’s working for. Whether the person wants a place to read, meditate, listen to music, sing and a place to sit alone and look at the sky find their way into the design. That’s how questions of light and ventilation are addressed.

“I talk to them, and get a sense of who they are. My homes are not built in cement and mortar, but love, affection and compassion,” he says eloquently.

Take the example of G. Shankar’s mind altering house of mud at Mudavanmugal, a perfect example of architecture that is in sync with nature. Called ‘Siddhartha’, it is a uniquely shaped mud house crafted with a parabolic design idiom which has beautiful creepers and bamboo growing out of it.

It took him 18 months to build it.

“When you build in mud and earth, it takes time because the structure is handcrafted. It’s a house that I built after 30 years of practice. I actually never wanted to build a house for myself, but my wife said ‘you’re getting old and you need to build your house’. The results have been very satisfying. I can feel the sheen and smoothness when I touch it,” he says.

Why Habitat Technology Group?

Architect Shankar grew up in a state, which had completely forgotten the legacy of vernacular architecture. With money flowing in through remittances from the Middle East, people were building what he calls ‘monstrosities’ that did not factor in their cultural heritage, local structural nuances and the environment.

“I believe in the goodness of indigenous architecture because they always belonged to the site and the people. Traditional architecture involves 1000 years of research and development. The legacy of residential architecture in Kerala is huge and it has developed some of the most profound styles. Looking at the physical, social and cultural climate, their concerns were so widespread and beautiful,” he says.

For him, these ‘monstrosities’ represented the proliferation of greed and power. After an uninspiring stint in Delhi, following university in the UK, he came to work for the Kerala government. However, he soon realised that they weren’t on the same page, and soon made a beeline for the voluntary sector.

“I wanted to build a people’s movement. The ordinary people of Kerala were looking for options beyond these ‘monstrosities’,” he says.

Starting out as a one-room one-person organisation in 1987, it was six-month wait before he was commissioned his first project, a small house for a bank clerk. However, the following years saw exponential growth. By 1990, he was doing 1,500 houses a year.

Today the non-profit has a core group of 400 architects, engineers and social workers with a support base of 35,000 trained workers and 34 regional offices spread all over India with project offices in Nigeria, Bangladesh and SriLanka, among others.

For over three decades, the Habitat Technology Group has worked with State agencies, other non-profits, corporations and local volunteers across multiple disaster-affected zones, helping people rebuild their homes abiding by his design principles.

From rehabilitating hundreds of families following the Bhopal Gas Tragedy to rebuilding homes following the Super Cyclone in Odisha in 1999 and Sri Lanka after the devastating Tsunami five years later, the Habitat Technology Group has done some remarkable work. In fact, with the aid of the German government in Sri Lanka, it rebuilt 95,000 homes, which is probably the largest rehabilitation project undertaken in the world.

However, following the devastating Kerala floods last year, the State government took the route of building prefabricated houses for those who had lost their homes. For Architect Shankar, this isn’t the right solution and believes a lot more can be done.

“They talked about prefab housing solutions for the poor. I said ‘no, we need to build people-centric homes’. The government of the day didn’t understand the language of sustainability. On my own, I’m tying up with multiple CSR initiatives, including Aster Homes, building up 1,000 homes for the homeless. In another two months, we are looking to build up another 500 homes. It’s almost been a year since the disaster, but we haven’t learnt from it. I’m a skeptic, but I also dare to dream for a sustainable future,” says Architect Shankar.

Besides, the group is also “in the forefront for building large hamlets and rehabilitation housing colonies for tribals, dalits and fishermen in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha”. With community participation as their mantra, it won the national award constituted by the Government of India for the slum upgradation works at Veli and Trivandrum as well.

Also Read: Pune Couple Builds Cement-Free Breathable Homes That Don’t Need ACs or Fans!

“We, the architects, are primarily responsible for climate change. This is because we are primarily responsible for the built up environment. In the last 30 years, we have been talking about sustainability. Unfortunately, we are not learning and the world is losing options. Everything we build from now onwards has to be eco-sensitive, energy efficient, cost efficient, people centered and value based. Otherwise we will lose the game,” he concludes.

(Edited by Saiqua Sultan)

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A cluster of bricks and wood arranged symmetrically and sealed into four strong walls with a roof on top, is not a home. It’s a house.

A home, on the other hand, is a reservoir of memories safely sealed within those walls. And, the Raghavans wanted to preserve just that and much more.

So when the cracks and wrinkles began to show on the walls, the family was caught in a dilemma. They did not want a complete makeover, a space devoid of a sense of nostalgia. They wanted to embrace the new while preserving the old just not in spirit but in substance too.

Thus began their journey with Sharath R Nayak, an architect at Biome Environmental Solutions, a Bengaluru-based design firm which specialises in creating ecologically sensitive and sustainable spaces.

Together, they designed a new home, that was to be built using most of the construction material from its predecessor. In other words, the project did not involve demolishing the old structure, but dismantling it, so that it could be used for the new house.

“Had it not been for the structural damages, we would not have dismantled the old house at all. When the time came to finally do it, we knew that it had to be in a way that reduced our carbon footprints to the maximum extent possible. Reusing the materials in construction should be a norm and not an exception,” says Shobha R, one of the daughters of Wing Commander KVP Raghavan (Retd) and Mythili Raghavan.

Located at the heart of Bengaluru, the house was spread across an area of 3500 square ft, which was a result of several extensions over time, to suit the needs of the family.

In the process, it had deteriorated, with symptoms of cracks, dampness and leakage surfacing now and then.

“The subsequent additions had reduced light and ventilation in the house, and multiple levels made it difficult for the elderly. The house didn’t suit the current lifestyle of the family, so they decided to build a new one in its place. But, they were also very sensitive to the fact that demolition would generate debris and wanted to reuse as much of the material from the old house as possible. This meant that the house would need to be dismantled, not demolished. The materials were then segregated and reused,” explains the architect, Sharath.

Taking it as a welcome challenge, Sharath, along with a design team, structural engineers and contractors, began the work.

The process of re-creation

From bricks from the old walls to concrete and even windows and doors, the design seamlessly utilised the remnants of the old house into the new.

But, the first step to do so was to have a strong foundation.

“When the old house was dismantled, the soil was found to be weak and low in bearing capacity. So to strengthen the base sustainably and economically, we decided to dig up wells and fill it up with the demolished concrete that was segregated and processed from the debris,” he informs us.

With the foundation in place, creating the walls was the next step.

“In a project like this, flexible planning works as you have to keep thinking and improvising on the go. So, for the walls, we decided on two approaches. One part was built using stones from the old foundation, and another part was built by plastering the old bricks. Brick walls in the old structure had been built with lime mortar, and easy to dismantle and reuse. Also, we reused granite slabs found in the old house to create staircase treads,” he says.

Even the doors and the windows from the previous structure, which were mostly made of high-quality teak wood, were repurposed.

“We made sure that all of it was first checked for quality and durability. Once that was ticked off, we proceeded to transform the shorter doors into windows that gave the entire design a better look and ventilation. For the doors, however, we combined the leftover wood with new teak wood,” Sharath adds.

“Rapid urban expansion is taking a toll on our natural resources. These skewed notions of development floated by glamorous campaigns that make us believe that progress means a mindless increase in infrastructure, without a thought to the environment, is completely flawed. Each one of us needs to get closer to nature and understand that we can’t survive if we deplete natural resources,” adds Shobha, who is a forest rights activist by passion and profession.

Nostalgia served in a new box

Like every home, this one too, came with its own set of quirks.

Decorated with 1920s furniture and surrounded by tall silver oak trees, the place, Shobha says reflects the kind of people they are.

“Our house has always been a place where friends and relatives have gathered for celebrations and get-togethers. My grandmother was known for her generosity, especially in the matter of food. The passion for hosting people and enjoying the small joys in life over simple and elaborate meals continues till today. While the members of the family do like spending time with each other, we all have our own independent lives, and the architecture of the house now reflects this. The ground floor, as well as the first floor of the house, comprise two sections, which can be kept open or completely independent of each other, depending on the privacy needs,” she says.

The house is not just surrounded by greenery, but also has an open to sky internal courtyard- which allows the family to experience the green outside while staying within their private space.

“This does mean that rain splashes onto the living rooms in the house, but that hardly bothers us as we love looking at and smelling the rain even while staying indoors,” she adds.

Sharath adds that the design for the mutram or open-to-sky courtyard at the heart of the house was inspired by well-ventilated houses in rural Chhattisgarh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

He explains how the design reflects the family’s idea to maintain a balance between the public and private.

“The new design has two levels of 1700 sq ft, housing four units, each of which has its own kitchen, living and dining spaces. Traditional elements such as the ‘tinnai’ (raised platform marking the entrance of the house) and the ‘mutram’ have been integrated into the house as desired by the family. The courtyard is the focal point of each unit, providing light and ventilation to the living spaces that encompass it” he says.

Also Read: Zero Waste to Organic Food: Ahmedabad Lady’s Toxin-Free Home Will Inspire You!

The inspiration for the tinnai, Shobha adds goes back into her childhood, when her grandfather hosted scores of people in their ancestral home in Srirangam, Tiruchirapalli.

‘A happy place where any traveller could stop by for a chat’ was what came to her mind when imagining such a space in the new house. And, the leftover granite stone unearthed from the foundation of the old house, was a perfect fit for cosy stone tinnai (porch/patio).

But like most unique projects, this one was also not devoid of challenges.

“Costs and time delays, owing to procedural delays, was the main challenge. The red oxide flooring was hard to get done, with a shortage of skilled persons who could give it the required finish. Our standards were, of course, set high, given that we used to live in a 100-year-old house in the same location. The floors in that house were amazing, and we miss that. My grandmother used to tell us stories of how the red oxide floors used to be painstakingly polished manually for days on end, in the olden days. It’s a skill that is slowly dying. However, we are happy that we have tried recreating it to the maximum extent possible,” recalls Shobha.

Sharath adds that its high time such a unique project becomes mainstream.

“Although we had to go the extra mile, it was worth it. The project taught us how to create high-quality structures we do not need to go looking for virgin material. Old structures are our untapped resource, and more architects and architecture institutes should look into reusing them sustainability. Sustainable architecture should not be ‘unique’ anymore; it is the need of the hour!” he says.

After months of hard work, the project was finally complete in 2014 and emerged to be the perfect blend of the past, the present and the future!

“Our home doesn’t look shiny and new. We didn’t buy new furniture or splurge on decorating the house. It remains cosy, friendly, and a place that reminds us of my grandmother—simple and playful. A section of the top floor remains a place for creative pursuits like using theatre for talking about issues of social change and human rights. It doubles as my workspace as well as a place where friends can stay over or have a small get-together or celebrations,” she concludes.

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

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When talking about climate change, the one product that is often left out of the conversation is your Air Conditioner.

Yes, the famed AC has allowed people living in hot climates to better concentrate on their work and get a decent night’s sleep, and thus drive greater prosperity and happiness, especially in India.

But there is a catch. According to the International Energy Agency, the number of air-conditioning units will exponentially grow from 1.6 billion to 5.6 billion by 2050 because of increasing urbanisation, rising population, higher incomes, and falling AC prices.

“It’s not too hard to imagine a vicious cycle in which more hot weather begets more demand for air conditioning ever and thus, even more, need for power. That, in turn, means more [carbon dioxide] emissions and even hotter temperatures. That negative feedback loop exists at a local level too. Air-conditioning units funnel heat outside, exacerbating the so-called ‘urban heat island’ effect, which makes cities warmer than the countryside,” writes Bloomberg columnist Chris Bryant.

In India, this vicious cycle could have a devastating effect, particularly on poorer households. We have to consider other alternatives to ACs.

Also Read: Beat the Heat with an Easy Cooling Solution That Costs a Tenth of an AC

Here are three housing solutions you can adopt:

1) Lime and mud mortar instead of cement

Using a combination of lime (instead of cement to bind tiles) and mud mortar (instead of cement to bind bricks), alongside naturally available stone and bricks gives a structure, room to breathe.

Lime is a particularly interesting material. Besides being recyclable, it also possesses a greater thermal insulation value.

Cement, however, obstructs a structure’s ability to breathe. This is what architect couple Dhruvan Hingmire and Priyanka Gunjikar did in a recent project at a private retreat in Thoran village near Kamshet, Maharashtra.

“After the completion of this project, we monitored the temperature inside and outside the house. Recently, it was 38 degrees Celsius outside, but a remarkable 25 degrees inside. So, you don’t even need an air conditioner. Even in the summer, we don’t use fans, except perhaps in the attic,” says Dhruvang, speaking to The Better India.

Also Read: Pune Couple Builds Cement-Free Breathable Homes That Don’t Need ACs or Fans!

2) Heat resilient rooftops

In Ahmedabad, the Mahila Housing Trust, a women-led non-profit promoted by SEWA, found a unique home cooling solution for low-income households in India—heat resilient rooftops called Modroofs developed by Hasit Ganatra, the founder of sustainable roofing firm Rematerials.

“Modroofs is a signature product of Rematerials, water-proof modular roofs made of paper waste and coconut husk that reduces the temperature of homes and provides an eco-friendly alternative to RCC roofs. They are also easily dismantled and reinstalled easily,” says a report in The Better India.

After collecting all the necessary data, they found that temperatures dropped by a significant 7-8 degrees Celsius inside their homes.

Also Read: From Cool Homes to Autos, an Ahmedabad NGO Is Making It Easier for Slum Dwellers to Bear the Heat

3) Traditional design

Sometimes, it isn’t about materials, as much as it is about how one designs a home. Vinu Daniel, a legendary architect from Kerala, did something rather unique with his uncle’s home.

Aside from using Compressed Stabilised Earth Blocks (CSEBs) which are essentially mud blocks and a complete wall made of beer bottle jaalis, he adopted the traditional Kerala home design features like the Nadumuttam (a traditional open courtyard) for his famed Valsal cottage.

Besides ventilation, the Nadumuttam harvests rainwater and directs it to the plants outside. A total eco-friendly feature.

“This allowed for more internal cooling. Since hot air is lighter, it would escape through the central courtyard opening. Meanwhile, the upper stories had a complete wall made of beer bottle jaalis and CSEBs. In ancient houses, there used to be an upper area, which had a gable full of holes, allowing hot air to escape the building. In our case, all the hot air escapes out from first-floor room jaali. Using beer bottles also allowed the light to flow in seamlessly as well. This design created conditions for natural cooling, making air conditioners redundant,” informs Vinu, speaking to The Better India.

Although the structure was changed due to creative differences with his uncle, it did offer up a unique home cooling solution.

Also Read: For Years, Kerala Man Has Used Recyclable Waste To Build Homes That Don’t Need ACs!

If you want to cool your home and avoid using ACs, it’s about getting the combination of design and materials right. However, if you’re going to go a step further with sustainability, these eco-friendly materials must be sourced locally and more importantly, the design must adapt well to local climatic conditions.

“We, the architects, are primarily responsible for climate change. This is because we are primarily responsible for the built-up environment. In the last 30 years, we have been talking about sustainability. Unfortunately, we are not learning, and the world is losing options. Everything we build from now onwards has to be eco-sensitive, energy efficient, cost efficient, people-centred and value-based. Otherwise, we will lose the game,” says Padma Shri-award winning architect G Shankar.

We must pay heed to his words.

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

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Every time I come back home to Chennai, the rising number of new constructions surprises me. In just the last five years, the street on which my parents live has seen five new apartment buildings. How much pressure do such new concrete monstrosities exert on the already fragile environment?

If you live in an area where there is a water shortage, or if you’d just like to be a good citizen and conserve water, you could consider getting these water saving tap adaptors and do your bit to lead a sustainable lifestyle.

Architects must realise that designing with nature at a building level is so much more than just the aesthetics—it involves understanding and incorporating many different natural elements.

Architects must recognise sun paths, the way sunlight and breeze enters a space, the rock formations around the concrete structure and the trees that provide shade. Once we take all these into account, the result would be a beautiful, sustainable architecture.

In his 1969-published successful book, Design with Nature, Ian McHarg claims, “If one accepts the simple proposition that Nature is the arena of life and that a modicum of knowledge of her process is indispensable for survival and rather more for existence, health and delight, it is amazing that how many apparently difficult problems present a ready solution.”

In this article, we talk to Green Evolution, a Chennai-based architecture firm whose aim echoes McHarg’s proposition.

The beginning of Green Evolution

Anupama Mohanram and Jaideep Vivekanand, the brains behind the firm say that it was born out of a need to be sensitive to our earth. Working as an architect in Chicago, Anupama had spent considerable time in the US and it was in the early 2000s that she became aware of the extent of human contribution to environmental degradation. Her involvement with the Chicago Centre for Green Technology and the US Green Building Council (USGBC) led her to obtain her LEED Accreditation in 2006. She then moved back to Chennai to start Green Evolution in 2008 to spread green building practices in India.

Jaideep, a mechanical engineer, joined Anupama in her passion for environmental conservation as her business partner after completing his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management in Chicago.

Green Evolution strongly believes that sustainable architecture is not limited to the design of just buildings. It goes beyond to ensure occupants minimise their energy and water use and ultimately enjoy an environment that is comfortable, healthy, provide them long term resource security and the satisfaction of having done their part to save our earth in the long run, shares Anupama.

The firm also believed that individual buildings should also contribute to their respective neighbourhoods.

Why is sustainable living so important?

When we hear the word sustainable living, we associate it with minimising the use of non-renewable resources and enjoying a non-toxic environment. Green Evolution believes that such a way of life also encourages people to utilise locally available resources, aid in reviving the currently fading local artistry boosting the country’s economy and also reduce our carbon footprint on the planet.

“Over the last decade, there has been a slow but steady climb in clients approaching us for ‘Green Buildings’. Where, early on, we had to spend a lot of time educating clients on the need to conserve, now most of them seem to be well aware of the issues and approach us with a broad understanding of the need for sustainable building practices,” says Anupama.

With Chennai reeling with acute water scarcity, the firm is receiving a lot of queries for effective water management, not only in the new designs but also in the existing buildings such as individual residences, large apartment complexes and commercial buildings.

“We are starting to work with these existing buildings to retrofit water conserving fixtures and water treatment and re-use options,” says Anupama.

When asked about the challenges that the firm faces, Anupama says that in the early years they spent a lot of time in convincing clients about the benefits of adopting alternate materials that would be less harmful and polluting.

While there has been a change in the attitude, Anupama feels that the same needs to be recognised in terms of the compliances that are in place. “Until then, there will remain a vast majority of people unwilling to change their path. We hope such regulations are not too far into the future and will make our work less challenging.”

Do Green homes cost more?

One of the prime concerns that clients have is whether building a green home will increase their budget and put a significant dent on their savings. In answer to this, Anupama says, “In our design practice, to conserve resources, we minimise the use of materials that are extraneous and not functional such as façade embellishment, un-necessary plastering and so on. This results in a reduction in the cost of civil construction.”

We must mention here that the designs that the firm works on also help in reducing water and electricity costs for the occupant. Investing in solar photovoltaic helps in long-term payback. “In the larger scheme of things our buildings will not exceed conventional building costs in case of residences and at the most cost five per cent more in case of commercial buildings,” says Jaideep.

While regular maintenance for these buildings is minimal, one requires a conscious effort to observe and maintain best practices such as ensuring waste segregation, food garden tending, and the proper functioning of water conserving equipment.

Some things that contribute to making the buildings sustainable:

• The building materials used are eco-friendly (less polluting during its manufacture)
• The material is locally sourced to minimise pollution from long distance transportation.
  Some options for these are hollow clay blocks and lightweight aerated concrete blocks for walls, handmade locally-created Athangudi tiles, local stone for floors, roof gardens, reflective tiles for the roof, heat insulating glass for windows.
• Using salvaged materials such as re-purposed wood from shipping cartons, doors and windows from older buildings, broken tiles from construction waste for pathways are preferred as this will minimise manufacture of new materials and prevent debris from landing into landfills.

Can one incorporate these features into existing buildings?

It is possible (now even mandatory) to build sustainable features into existing buildings which were not built with conservation in mind. Explaining this, Anupama says, “As part of our efforts, we conduct an initial study of existing buildings to review current standing and check the feasibility of bringing in sustainable features. While some of these will incur low upfront costs, it would be of high impact such as fitting aerators in taps to minimise water use, changing water closet cisterns to minimal dual flush volumes, retrofitting lights and fans to energy conserving ones now available.”

While some features such as retrofitting waste-water treatment and re-use systems and solar photovoltaic systems would incur more cost, they would ensure long term water and energy security.

In writing these stories, we hope that more people will be inspired to make small changes and help in preserving the environment.

(Edited by Saiqua Sultan)

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We all have a general idea of what architects do, but few have an understanding of the art, science, and the role of architects behind the restoration and conservation of heritage properties.

Making the past relevant to the future by using design as a tool, is how conservation architect Aishwarya Tipnis describes the work that she does.

Having worked on restoring private havelis (mansions) to reviving an entire town with her work, Aishwarya is a champion of conservation architecture in India.

While conversing with her, we discuss why she decided to work in conservation architecture, the projects she has undertaken, and how she sees sustainability being a part of the work she does.

Having completed her architecture degree from the School of Planning and Architecture in 2003, Aishwarya says that the choice of working with heritage buildings and structures was made rather early on in life.

“I was clear even when I was studying that I wanted to spend my working years undertaking projects that had a cultural and heritage value to them. Even the projects that I undertook in college were all about conserving heritage buildings.”

Once Aishwarya graduated, she moved to Mumbai where she worked on urban heritage conservation with Abha Narain Lambah, an established conservation architect, before going to Scotland to pursue a Master’s Degree in Urban Heritage Conservation in 2006. “I started Aishwarya Tipnis Architects in 2007 and have been very lucky to have been trained under the very best in both India and the UK.”

Aishwarya believes that conservation is not something that is a new concept for us, as Indians. “We are taught from childhood not to waste things, to recycle and use things again in a unique manner whenever possible. These are things that are ingrained in us. What happens is we start giving this process new names – going green, sustainability etc. and that is when it starts getting distant from our everyday lives.”

This is exactly what Aishwarya tries to do with her work as well, “We try as much as possible to go back to our roots and work with those principles in mind.”

Can a home be heritage? Aishwarya answers:

One of the early projects that Aishwarya took up was on the behest of her college professor. She recollects driving with the client to his home in Kashemere Gate and what follows is truly interesting. “I remember how my client explained how this was where his family lived and now that it was time to get his sons married, he was looking at sprucing things around the home to give it a good look.”

“Beneath all the falling paint was an architectural gem” is how Aishwarya describes her first impression on seeing Seth Ram Lal Khemka Haveli. She spent almost eight and a half years converting the 150-year-old structure in Old Delhi into a 21st-century residence for her client and his family.

In 2010, the Delhi government had declared the haveli as a heritage building and according to law, they had to ensure that the original contours of the building remained intact.

The same year, the Archaeological Survey of India made it a rule that prior permission was mandatory for any work within 300 metres of a protected monument and the haveli was merely 292 metres from Kashmere Gate.

With no map of the building or any sort of blueprint to go by, Aishwarya recalls how difficult it was to put things together for this project. “The idea was to provide all modern facilities like a modular kitchen, western-styled toilets etc., without, in any way, changing the existing structure.” The point that Aishwarya makes is that for most people the word heritage signifies forts, palaces, and monuments. One doesn’t look at a home as a heritage property.

“In this particular case it was a change in mind-set – during all my conversations with my client I kept reiterating that what he had in his home was something special and he ought to value it,” says Aishwarya.

Today, after the restoration of this mansion, there are media houses from across the globe that come to interview the homeowners trying to understand how they retained the essence of their haveli. Surprisingly, this was also the first private restoration project in the entire Old Delhi area. This project acted as a catalyst as many homeowners saw the potential in getting their homes redone.

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When asked how the government can help retain and restore such properties, Aishwarya gives the example of Ahmedabad, and says, “With Ahmedabad getting a tag of World Heritage Site, we saw many soft loans being given out to people to restore their properties. Some cities have nostalgia attached to their properties and the fundamental point is to try and make them as relevant as possible for its occupants today.”

The tale of reviving a sleepy town – Chandernagore

Speaking about one of her longest and most cherished projects, Aishwarya speaks about the restoration work she undertook in Chandernagore, a town close to Kolkata. In 2010, the French Consulate approached Aishwarya to conduct a survey of the town post which, she compiled a list of 99 buildings in the town, both public and private, that needed restoration.

“My work there was to bring attention to the almost forgotten town, in fact, I can safely say that the work we did there helped put this town back on the map.”

Having completed the work, Aishwarya says it was a frustrating period because nothing was happening with all the research that she had put in. “Buildings were getting demolished and I saw nothing happening. With no funds to really drive the project, I decided to put all my research out in the public domain by building a website. We worked with some young students from the town and slowly, it started becoming a people’s movement with many more joining us and taking up the cause of preserving Chandernagore’s heritage on their own as well.”

What Aishwarya was able to generate with respect to Chandernagore was curiosity and that was the first step toward bringing about a change.

When the architect looks back at the work she has done she says that the number of young architects who are looking at conservation architecture as a career choice is heartening. Fifteen years ago, when she set out to do this, there weren’t any takers, so in that sense, she feels that the journey has been fulfilling.

Given that most of the projects that Aishwarya undertakes span across many years, when asked how she manages to stay motivated, she says, “I feel like the tortoise in the story ‘Tortoise and Hare’. I saw many of my batch mates zoom past me but now some of them feel burnt out and somewhere bored with the work they do.

I, on the other hand, am inching forward one step at a time, still very much in love with what I do.

It’s wonderful to be at work each morning. It’s been 17 years now and the enthusiasm remains what it was on day one.”

In January 2018, the French government conferred on her the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for her work for the preservation of French heritage in India and, in particular, Chandernagore.

Aishwarya truly believes that conservation has the power to change lives and that is something she takes very seriously.

If you would like to know more about the work that she does, you can reach out to her via her website here.

Picture Courtesy: Aishwarya Tipnis Architects

(Edited by Saiqua Sultan)

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About 11 years ago, my parents decided to renovate our home, and construct another floor above the existing ground floor bungalow.

I was in Class 8 at the time and what dominates the memory of this almost one-year period is heaps of stones and sand in the yard, cement dust that permeated through every nook and cranny of the home, and the loud noises made by the construction machines.

Even after the construction ended, it felt like the assorted debris had lingered on. My brother and I would fall ill frequently; our dog developed skin rashes that stayed with him till he died and most of the plants in our yard—including the lush mango trees—withered.

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That was my first-hand experience of seeing how the construction of just one floor can adversely affect the environment. No wonder then, that in the rapidly industrialising and urbanising world, cement is responsible for about 7% of the carbon dioxide emissions.

Using cement, sand, and stone for construction is the norm, and very few follow the less-travelled road of sustainable buildings.

One architect in Goa, however, is propagating the idea of using locally available sustainable materials, often recycled, for the construction of new houses.

Dean D’Cruz not only wants house owners to utilise construction materials and human resources of the location where their homes are situated but also wants them to form a community of neighbours where resources are shared. These steps, he believes, will maintain the sustainability of the houses for years to follow.

“In our projects, we have worked with families who have actually been a part of the construction and detailing process, buying materials themselves and choosing them appropriately… While this needs to be done, we need to go well beyond this and look at a greater difference if we truly are to achieve sustainability,” the architect tells The Better India.

He adds that ensuring a safe, empowering space to the local community and engaging with them long after the construction process is completed are two crucial factors to “sustain” the sustainability model.

A graduate of the JJ College of Architecture in Mumbai, D’Cruz came to his home state of Goa almost 35 years ago, and set base here. He has worked on over 350 projects across India.

Over 300 of these are residential houses in Goa, and 40 are hotels across India. At least a quarter of these have been built in the most sustainable ways possible.

In 2001, he co-founded Mozaic, an architecture firm that advocates sustainable housing. Along the way, he also met like-minded people who not only joined the firm as professionals but also consulted with him for the construction of their homes.

“Sustainability was always on my mind even as I entered the field of architecture. And although sustainability may begin at the materials you use, it does not stop there. It should be implemented in the design, in utility and community building,” he says.

Seek local, stay sustainable

D’Cruz’s projects make use of materials that can be termed unconventional in the present architecture scenario.

However, this “shop local” mantra is just going back to our roots when houses were constructed with wood, mud and other materials that were available in the proximity of the house’s location. Back then, transporting material from one region to another was not feasible, and today, it is expensive.

Let’s take the example of Commander (Retd) Anant Narayan, a client who built his home in 2005.

With a budget of Rs 15 lakh, the retired Naval officer wanted to construct a three-bedroom home complete with a study, a dining area, and balconies.

It would have been nearly impossible with the commercially mass-produced materials. However, Narayan, who wanted to get creative with his home and knew about D’Cruz’s work and decided to consult with him.

“We built the walls using laterite stone instead of constructing them with a steel foundation, bricks and cement. The laterite was cheaper than the usual bricks, and since the cost was an important factor dominating our designs, we decided to go with it. The roof, too, was not a cement slab but made of Mangalore roof tiles. The arrangement of the tiles is such that there are gaps in between two tiles and that allows for ventilation of air. In a hot and humid place like Goa, this is crucial,” he explains.

Many designs of D’Cruz’s make use of waste materials available nearby. In one instance, the team used timber from trees that had fallen near the site, which was used in the construction of a five-star hotel.

In another instance, they got bike handles from a local garage and used them as a tap for a washbasin!

“In one homestay on top of a hill, the stone we excavated from the pool was used for the construction of the building. We avoided the use of wood in the doors, windows by making them of light steel frames and rebated the stonework itself to create the seal. Throughout our projects we have used waste materials like broken tiles for wet areas, broken stone slabs for flooring, waste steel stitched together for grills and many other modalities that several architects and NGOs are using today. In the jungle lodges we designed, we used the fallen wood from forest trees,” D’Cruz says.

Doors and windows in his designs are rarely brand new since D’Cruz believes in recycling materials for the gateways.

“Depending on the location of the house, we search for material that can be recycled. This is not a brand new idea, and in fact, several architects are already implementing it. Whether metal, glass, wood, stone or soil, we try to keep it local. That way, your home remains sustainable in several meanings of the term,” he explains.

Design is everything

Mozaic’s office is located amidst a forested area. And instead of building strong walls to keep the wilderness away, it takes extra effort to be a part of nature.

One of these efforts is to have huge windows with sliding glass doors and cane curtains. This allows natural light to brighten the office and also keeps the premises well ventilated, so the staff does not have to rely on artificial lights or air conditioners during the day. At times, birds fly inside the office!

Explaining why designing is just as, if not more important than sustainable materials, D’Cruz says, “How you use space and resources is a crucial aspect of architecture. If a room is restricted to single-use, it begs for more rooms to be constructed for other purposes. Instead, we try to make a place multipurpose. We actively seek methods to reduce the work both in terms of labour and material used.”

Narayan’s house is also a lovely example of how design can not only save space and money but also help a home truly be a part of the environment.

For starters, the 500 square metre plot of land where he was to construct the house was on sloping land. Usually, the land would be flattened to lay the foundation. However, D’Cruz decided to utilise the hard rock on this slop as the foundation and build the house on three levels instead.

“Not only did this bring the cost down, but it also allowed us to base the house on the existing stone itself. There are no cement columns, even inside the house. Rather, we used the old technique of having load-bearing walls that take the weight of the roof,” Narayan says. He also explained that no walls divide his dining, kitchen and drawing room, so it feels like a vast space and also allows for excellent ventilation.

Building a house with the community & building a community with the house:

Explaining how he encourages community building with his projects, D’Cruz says, “Houses need to respond and adapt to changing family structures and other such cultural changes over the years. They need to reduce their footprint with a community approach, having clusters of houses with shared resources rather than individual ones with repetitive infrastructure that could have been easily shared.”

Communities built on a cooperative basis, besides sharing common infrastructure of water, sewage, waste etc., now also have community kitchens which foster social interaction and community bonding.

“Homes need to be built by communities and not contractors. They need to be low on energy in building and usage, equitable in the demarcation of spaces for the people who support and maintain the homes, and finally, bring people together rather than isolate them. We have to learn to empower communities to recall traditional building methods, which have been lost by factors like urbanisation or industrialisation. They need to be recyclable themselves at the end of use,” he concludes.

You may also like: Building Low-Cost Green Houses Since 1996: Architect Brings Back Mud Homes In India!

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

Image Courtesy: Dean D’Cruz/ Mozaic

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With a school that has a different approach toward education and is also visually appealing, wouldn’t you be excited to sit in the classrooms every day?

Bangalore-based NGO, Building Blocks has created just such a green haven for pre-primary children from underprivileged backgrounds to express themselves in and learn in the process. What’s better? 40 children in Coorg’s Siddapura district are currently attending this unique and unconventional school.

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Building Blocks provides primary education to 840 children aged between 3-6 in its ten centres. James Ambat, the founder of the NGO, feels that children of slum dwellers and wage labourers miss out on kindergarten and are admitted directly in class 1 in government schools. Zero literacy makes it difficult for them to cope up with the syllabus of a higher level when they don’t even know how to hold a pencil.

Speaking to The Better India (TBI) about the dire need of establishing pre-primary schools for underprivileged kids, James says:

On the one hand, we have numerous international and private pre-primary schools across India where the young ones learn basic etiquette, conversational skills, writing letters, and so on. And on the other hand, are kids who spend their early years at construction sites. Our organisation is working toward bridging this gap since 2014. Pre-primary schools are the starting point of a child’s academic journey.

Known as ‘Morning Glory’, the eco-friendly pre-primary school provides free education to the children of labourers.

With eucalyptus poles hanging from its ceilings; large windows welcoming the sunlight and roofs carved out of upcycled waste wood, this school is different and how. If it is summer, the children do not feel the heat as uninterrupted breeze cools them. And during winters, the mud walls trap the heat to keep them warm.

This English medium school provides the students with books, stationery, and bags along with two meals each day. It also conducts sessions for parents to help them understand the importance of nutrition. The school follows age-appropriate practices aimed at imparting a sense of living with nature which grooms the kids in understanding the value of the environment.

Some of the methods include teaching the children about the three Rs-Reduce, Reuse, Recycle through interactive exercises encouraging student participation. The learners are also encouraged to take care of the plants in the school campus and are trained in waste segregation through practice. All these life lessons are taught with the use of eco-friendly teaching aids like leaves, pebbles, sticks, pressed flowers, sand, bamboo.

The school is funded by Evolve Back Resort (also known as Orange County). The company has a chain of hotel properties promoting green hospitality. The idea to make Morning Glory an eco-friendly school stems from the company’s principles of harmony with nature.

“Morning Glory is an initiative to create a clean, healthy and environment-friendly atmosphere for young underprivileged children to learn in. We want children to grow with an understanding of environmental sustainability and the need to preserve mother nature. This all-inclusive free school is our way of giving back to the community that has been the backbone to our growth and success,” Evolve Back Executive Director Jose Ramapuram tells Edex Live.

A group of architects has designed the school, and one of them spoke to TBI explaining how green schools are a way to raise kids responsibly.

“The environment in which children spend the majority of time has a huge impact on their view of the world at a very tender age. It exposes children to various possibilities and brings them closer to nature. And the people around are also aware that one does not need to step away from nature to create a piece of art,” says George Ramapuram, CEO of Earthitects.

Whether it is the design of a table, a window, the blackboard or the lighting system, this concept that nothing needs to be the way it is, is communicated through design. We have built it in a way that brings children closer to nature by blurring the boundaries between the interior and exterior. The windows are big, with very few railings.

As for the curriculum, it is a balance between numbers and literature; life and leadership skills, hygiene practices and personality development.

Morning Glory is a perfect blend of inclusivity, academics, life skills and a lesson on coexisting with nature!

Also Read: Building Low-Cost Green Houses Since 1996: Architect Brings Back Mud Homes In India!

Image Source: George Ramapuram

(Edited by Saiqua Sultan)

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“If the cement industry were a country, it would be the third-largest carbon dioxide emitter in the world with up to 2.8bn tonnes, surpassed only by China and the US,” reports The Guardian.

The article goes on to mention that over the past 60 years, we have produced 8bn tonnes of plastic, but what’s worse? The cement industry churns out twice that amount every two years! While cement continues to remain the go-to material due to its affordability and durability, it’s carbon footprint is devastating to the environment.

Cement produces eight per cent of the world’s carbon dioxide according to the London-based not-for-profit and non-governmental organisation Chatham House that analyses and promotes the understanding of major international issues.

A 27-year-old Civil Engineer from Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh had the same worries at the back of his head. This led him to develop a transparent concrete that partially utilises industrial waste in the place of cement. This switch helps in reducing CO2 emissions by reducing the cement consumption and can reduce electricity bills by 30 per cent.

Ramansh Bajpai, currently pursuing his Masters in Environmental Science from Harcourt Butler Technical University (HBTU), Kanpur, has developed this eco-friendly alternative as part of his final year project.

After ten months of hard work and several failed attempts, Ramansh finally perfected the formula. The rectangular-shaped concrete is made from plastic optical fibres, steel and industry waste (ground granulated blast furnace slag).

The use of industrial waste further ensures that the cost of the transparent concrete is 15 per cent less than regular cement. In terms of durability, it is 23 per cent stronger and 5 per cent lighter.

The concrete can be used in green buildings and in high-rise buildings as curtain walls that do not bear any load of the building. The main advantage is that it allows the natural light to enter the room, but no heat or water can pass through the wall, thus preventing leakages or dampness. Since the room with transparent concrete will get the maximum amount of natural light, the use of electricity will come down, Ramansh tells The Better India (TBI).

Many decorative transparent materials are available in the market, but they are mostly made by fibres which are not fire-resistant. This transparent concrete can withstand much higher temperatures. In case of a fire, only the plastic optical fibres may be damaged but not the wall or building, Ramansh adds.

The final year student tested the material in the university and was certified successful by Deepesh Kumar Singh, Assistant Professor at the university. It was under his guidance that Ramansh made this sustainable invention.

Ramansh’s invention fulfils the criteria of being a cheaper and greener alternative to cement. Using transparent concrete is a viable solution to the problem of cement emitting carbon dioxide and contributing to greenhouse gases. The construction material can also be used in low-cost housing schemes, Singh tells TBI.

Ramansh used his personal savings for the project. However, his project is currently on hold due to financial constraints, “I want to develop the material for commercial use and for that I need investors,” adds the engineer.

We hope that Ramansh’s futuristic invention paves the way for a green future in the construction sector.

You can write to Ramansh at: ramanshbajpai786@gmail.com

Also Read: TBI Blogs: Did You Know ‘Green Buildings’ Not Only Save Resources, but Also Boost Your Productivity?

(Edited by Saiqua Sultan)

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What started in a tiny garage in Delhi, has now grown into one of India’s renowned eco-friendly architecture firms. Sustainability, Optimisation, Unique and Liveability is the ‘SOUL’ mantra that Morphogenesis diligently follows.

Alumni of Delhi’s School of Planning and Architecture and the prestigious Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, Manit and Sonali Rastogi co-founded Morphogenesis in 1996.

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We started Morphogenesis as a two-person practice working out of a tiny garage, with no certainty of what the future would unravel for us, yet with complete clarity of purpose – to contribute to the definition of and to build a global discourse on contemporary Indian Architecture, says Sonali.

While Sonali studied Housing and Urbanism, Manit got a degree in Energy and Environmental studies.

The husband-wife duo returned to India in the 90s to put their knowledge into practice and bring an architectural evolution.

I believe we were fortunate to be in India at a time when there was a paradigm shift in the economy which was growing and liberalising, because that lets us experiment with the evolution of corporate offices, shopping complexes, educational institutes, etc. that were pushing the boundaries for new forms of education, health facilities, IT campuses, and more. This helped us get our first project Apollo Tyres Corporate office in Gurugram, says Manit.

Though it was fairly a new industry that the two amateurs were venturing into, the economic shift that India was undergoing during the 90s helped the duo take risks and experiment with their ideas and innovative methods.

The firm uses passive techniques of cooling such as thermal buffers, evaporative cooling, ventilation strategies and water reservoirs.

By integrating traditional concepts like jaalis, chajjas and verandas, all the buildings are designed in a way that consumes 75 per cent less energy than the certified green buildings, like in the case of The British School, Delhi.

Inspired by traditional Indian courtyards, the huge verandas in The British School are constructed to incorporate the old trees in the premises.

Eaves or chajjas provide shade, helping 50 per cent of the building to remain cool throughout the year.

Further, the baolis or subterranean stepped structures harvest rainwater. The jalis (perforated surfaces) lock direct heat and yet allows natural air and light to pass.

The consciously chosen architecture of the eco-friendly school building is inspired by its tagline – ‘An International education with an Indian soul’.

The idea was to inculcate in students a culture of living with climate and imbibing a lifelong learning of adapting to the environment. The architectural response–deeply rooted in the local–provides a strong cultural context, creating a learning environment that promotes social cohesion, says Manit.

With sustainability being the company’s core philosophy, the architect-couple uses ancient techniques of architecture to construct modern buildings.

All the construction materials are sourced locally within a 500 km radius of the site. This not only reduces carbon footprint by using the existing materials but also eliminates the transportation cost, thus bringing down the overall cost of the building.

Constructing a baoli or a pond, surrounded by walls, is another cooling method that Morphogenesis uses. This way, the earth is used as a heat sink, and as the water evaporates, it brings the overall temperature down.

How did they (ancestors) think up something so elaborate and yet so simple in its basic philosophy? How do you begin to think that you can dig into the ground and use the earth as a heat sink, have access to water, put a pavilion into it so that it’s comfortable throughout the year? It takes a lot of technology for us to think up something that simple now, Manit tells CNN.

Thanks to this 1500-year-old concept, the temperature inside The Pearl Academy in Jaipur is 20 degrees less than the outside temperature.

Another feather in the firm’s cap is the 140-acre under-construction Infosys campus in Nagpur being designed in a way that reduces energy and water consumption needs to one-fifth of what is consumed in a typical office.

This lowered requirement is serviced by a 30-acre on-site solar plant, resulting in zero energy from the grid. Zero water dependence is achieved by creating a reservoir on site that has been designed as a lake that adjoins the existing water tank in the West and is fed by incident rain and rainwater. As for biodegradable waste, it is treated on-site through a bio-gas plant, explains Manit.

In its 23-year-old journey, the firm claims that the total amount of land it has constructed green buildings on is approximately 50 million sq feet.

We have successfully created exemplars that have conservatively resulted in over nine million sq. metre of built environment benefitting over 560,000 inhabitants. Our construction has also saved 22 billion litres of freshwater, 4.1 billion kilowatts of energy. Overall speaking, it has led to a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 3.3 billion kilos, the duo claims.

Speaking of challenges, the couple shares:

We cannot answer what the biggest challenge is, but we can say that everyday must have a challenge, and if it doesn’t, then we find it. There is a gap between academia and the profession with both having different pursuits. While the profession deals with the ground level realities but doesn’t have time for any research, the opposites are applicable for academia.

To bridge this gap, the architectural firm has designed an in-house ‘Knowledge Management System’ that gives information of all their projects done to date. It gives details about what worked best and what didn’t. The software is accessible to all its employees, which makes disseminating knowledge easier.

Apart from championing the environmental cause, they also take pride in terms of being the ‘first ones’. The British School was the first net-zero energy enabled school in India. The winner of the Best Learning Building Award for Pearl Academy, Morphogenesis is the first Indian architectural firm to win a World Architecture Festival award in 2009.

It is the only firm in the World Architecture 100 list, with over 50 per cent of women across all levels.

With projects in eight countries, 95 International and National Awards and 750+ publications globally, it is the first Indian firm to be awarded the Singapore Institute of Architects Getz Award in 2014.

In an age where carbon-producing cement is a go-to construction material, green architecture firms like Morphogenesis are on the right track to a sustainable future.

To know more about Morphogenesis visit here.

Also Read: Building Low-Cost Green Houses Since 1996: Architect Brings Back Mud Homes In India!

Image Courtesy: Morphogenesis

(Edited by Saiqua Sultan)

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Using locally-sourced recycled construction materials is the USP of Ahmedabad-based couple – architect Snehal and interior designer Bhadri Suthar. For them, sustainability is a way of life which is reflected in the way the duo designs buildings.

Nature, ancient structures and traditional construction techniques are our inspiration and our respective childhood experiences have played an influential role in moulding our professional ethos, Bhadri tells The Better India (TBI).

Bhadri’s most favourite part of childhood was visiting famous heritage spots in Ahmedabad. She would be mesmerised every time she looked at the intricate carvings of Jama Masjid, the carved jaalis (perforated surfaces) of Sidi Sayyed ki Jali or the decorated vavs (step wells) of Dada Hari Ni Vav that resonate with ancient water conservation methods.

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“I was barely six when I first tried to decode the designs of the site by drawing a monument at home. In a way, the city’s heritage kindled my love for architecture,” she says.

Meanwhile, Snehal’s dad was an architect and their family owned a carpentry workshop, “I grew up surrounded by construction materials and those became my toys. Taking up architectural studies was a natural choice for me. I couldn’t see myself working in any other field,” shares Snehal.

While Snehal did his Masters in Sustainability from the San Francisco Institute of Architecture, Bhadri completed her Diploma in Interior Design from Arvindbhai Patel Institute of Architecture in Vidyanagar, Gujarat.

In 2002, the duo founded The Grid, an Ahmedabad-based architectural firm that uses recycled or local materials to build green spaces.

We use regional and recycled materials in place of virgin resources. We make sure that the overall construction material is produced, manufactured or quarried within 400 kilometres of the site so that it reduces the carbon footprint associated with shipping of construction materials, explains Bhadri.

The couple designs each project in a way that utilises maximum natural light and breeze reducing energy usage.

The comparison between a green building and a conventional one gives the notion that green building is expensive. But that is not true. If the building materials are selected systemically, it not only reduces cost but also reduces the environmental impact of extraction, transportation and installation. Green materials also enhance the indoor air quality as they are non-toxic and have minimal chemical emissions, adds Bhadri.

Here’s A Look At Three Sustainable Projects By The Grid

1) Organic Store

When the duo got the project of an organic store in city, the instructions were clear –build a store that reflect the all-organic essence of the store. Since the client was a farmer-turned-entrepreneur, the Suthars delved upon the options that are used and found in a farm.

Adopting the three R’s – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, the duo used a mix of cow dung and hay as the main construction material. The flooring is recycled wood and the store is lighted with energy-friendly LEDs.

“Cow dung is a natural insect repellent. It is also a good thermal insulator that can absorb the perfume of the incense sticks and retain it,” says Snehal.

2) Farmer’s Eco-Friendly Den

To replicate the atmosphere of a farm in their client’s office in Gandhinagar, the company used earthy, and natural materials. The foyer is laid with yellow sandstone bricks and the design allows natural light and air to enter the office during the day and the lanterns with a golden glow provide cosy and warm ambience at night. The trees are placed in southwest side of the office providing shade throughout the year. To add further to the aesthetics, the lawn boasts of a bullock cart and the workspace has clay pots and other accents.

The architectural layout was a simple grid-based plan and the building was slightly raised on a platform flowing into the surrounding landscape. The approach was to maintain the ethos of the traditional with a contemporary design, informs Snehal.

“The office has local species of trees and an artificial pond teeming with fish and turtles creating its own ecosystem,” he adds.

3) Terracotta Restaurant

The couple designed the Terracotta Restaurant in Gandhinagar in clay and terracotta material and colour tones.

“Clay has texture and yet is so soft and malleable that it can be moulded to any form. It is used in daily life and yet has so much aesthetic value,” says Bhadhri.

We suggested the name ‘Terracotta Restaurant’ to our client explaining its significance in congruence with the materials chosen. We carefully selected recycled material palette and the overall feel of the space is seamless. she adds.

Again, the duo used local materials like raw bricks, clay, terracotta and raw wood to bring a rustic charm to the interiors. They used timber panels from recycled wood for the ceiling that covers ACs and electrical conduits.

The restaurant has two-millimetre-thick steel laser-cut screens as partitions giving a feel of the traditional designs of jaalis.

The old-fashioned frames on the wall and the jharokha (a recycled medieval door) that gives a glimpse of interiors is another way in which the couple has tried to pay tribute to bygone eras.

The duo used water-based, non-toxic and eco-friendly paints in the restaurant.

In their 17-year-old journey, the company has constructed ten eco-friendly buildings and received several awards including Gujarat’s First Platinum Certified Green Building for Urban Oasis in 2015.

Besides, protecting the environment, Snehal and Badhri hope to inspire fellow architects and designers.

“The use of green ensemble is a way of inspiring our fellow designers and tell them that our passion and creativity can make an ordinary material transform a space. This is our way to integrate sustainable and traditional architecture in the urban lifestyle. Initially one may feel that they have to make extra efforts to design a green building, space or interior but once the practice becomes your belief then it becomes a part of the natural process of designing,” concludes the duo.

Also Read: Jaalis, Baolis & More: Architect Couple Uses Ancient Designs to Make Sustainable Buildings!

(Edited by Saiqua Sultan)

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“Why did I receive the Lifetime Achievement Award? I don’t even look that old,” said the eminent architect Benny Kuriakose jokingly.

To which the jury of Estrade Real Estate Awards replied, “The kind of work you do is relevant for a safe future.” The conversation took place in 2016 at one of the most prestigious award ceremonies in the world.

In his 30-year-old celebrated career in the field of sustainable architecture, Benny has built residential buildings, resorts and commercial structures using traditional, locally-sourced and eco-friendly materials like timber, stone, and earthen.

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The Chennai-based architect is widely known for his versatility which spans restoration, conservation, disaster rehabilitation, and working with the new buildings.

From Civil Engineer to Architect

It was an accidental meeting with his ‘guru’ that made the newly-graduated student opt for a slightly different line of work. After acquiring a degree in Civil Engineering from the College of Engineering, Trivandrum in 1984, Benny ventured into architecture.

His guru was Laurie Baker, called the ‘Gandhi of Architecture’ and considered to be the ‘Father of Sustainable Architecture’. As per Benny, he was the fourth person in India to work with Baker.

“I casually met Laurie Baker on an under-construction building site and spoke to him for an hour. I was most impressed by his ideas and motives behind constructing buildings without harming the environment. By the end of the conversation, I knew I wanted to work with him,” Benny tells The Better India (TBI).

After working with Baker, Benny started his practice in 1985 and spent the next year working with organisations like Centre of Science and Technology for Rural Development (COSTFORD), Kerala State Nirmithi Kendra and Integrated Rural Technology Centre, Palakkad.

In 1986, he won a scholarship from Charles Wallace India Trust to pursue a Master’s Degree in Conservation Studies from the Institute of Advanced Architectural Studies at the University of York, UK. Later on, he took his doctorate from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and his research topic was public housing in Kerala.

However, despite a Master’s degree from a prestigious university, very few people in his industry took him seriously, “I did not have an architecture degree and I have lost many projects because of this.

Life took a turn in 1992 when the popular South Indian actor Mammootty reached out to him, “I was excited when Mammootty sir called but was also nervous about designing his house.”

He took up the Chennai-project, but this time he decided to innovate and take inspiration not only from the Baker principles, but also from vernacular architecture and from the work of many other architects.

The guidelines of the south superstar were clear – to use minimal materials and paint. So, Benny avoided the use of marbles and glass and replaced them with old recycled timber. Doors were made from discarded teakwood. The terracotta flooring spoke of the old Kerala style architecture.

The eco-friendly house of Mammootty gave him recognition, and soon there was no looking back for Benny.

In 1996, he began work in Dakshinachitra museum, also known as Craft village, on the outskirts of the city. The museum comprises of 18 heritage houses, each representing the living styles of people from the southern states. The houses were made from local and waste materials and mud.

One of his prominent projects is the on-going Muziris Heritage Project in collaboration with the Government of Kerala. The ancient port city of Muziris is being restored to its former glory with a sustainable approach. The work began in 2009 and Benny and his team are working to restore mosques, museums, churches, palaces, forts, etc.

In the field of disaster-relief, some of his housing projects include the Latur (1993) and Bhuj (2002) earthquake. He designed more than 1,000 homes for the fisherfolk in Tharangambadi and Chinnangudi villages in Nagapattinam, under the Tsunami Rehabilitation Project.

The design of each project differs depending on climate, local resources, the client’s budget, land availability, and so on. The eco-conscious architect also tries to inculcate traditional aspects like courtyards, verandahs, roofs in modern structures.

Meanwhile, ‘Casa Rojo’, a house 15 km outside Chennai on East Coast Road is an amalgamation of modern and traditional concept. The use of open spaces by having two verandahs (entrance and rear), large windows and doors ensure cross ventilation and thermal comfort round the year. The house was built without cutting an old orchard comprising mango and other fruit trees.

Benny’s architectural firm has scaled up their operations in the last couple of years, and currently 23 people work along with him. Benny’s team does not have any hierarchy, and every member contributes equally. Benny continues Baker’s legacy even today.

Benny still remembers how Baker told him that he would not teach him; if Benny wanted to learn it would be through observations. For the nine months that he worked with Baker, Benny spent most of his time on-site.

Baker not only shaped Benny’s ideas about sustainable architecture but also his life’s philosophy. It is no wonder that his early works reflect his guru’s methods.

“More than my boss, he was my teacher from whom I learnt a lot about architecture. He never stuck to the conventional method of drawings. He would optimally use the local resources and workforce. He worshipped his work and working in alliance with the environment was a priority for Baker,” the eco-architect shares.

Awards, Recognition and the Way forward

For his exemplary sustainable work, Benny has several awards and accolades to his name like the Charles Wallace (India) Trust Award (1986), Designer of the Year Award by Inside Outside Magazine (2002), Celebration of Architecture Award by Inside Outside Magazine (2011) and the latest being Editor’s Choice for Exemplary Body of Work, Trends Excellence Award (2017).

Such acknowledgment has encouraged Benny, who aims to increase his projects in the commercial space, “I want to spread the eco-friendly technique across India and show people that it is possible to have a sustainable building even in urban spaces.”

To inform people about the benefits of eco-friendly houses, Benny has recently started sharing his projects on his social media platforms.

In addition to constructing building with eco-friendly materials, architects need to focus on recycling or conserving the existing buildings. We can reduce carbon footprint by recycling waste materials like timber, debris and so on, says Benny.

“Trees are the only things which can convert carbon dioxide into oxygen. If timber is allowed to decay or is burnt, then carbon dioxide is emitted back into the atmosphere as part of the carbon cycle. But when timber is used for buildings, carbon is not emitted back into the atmosphere. If more and more timber is used in buildings, and more trees are grown, the global warming trend can be reversed and this is the most important thing to be done at the moment,” adds the architect, elaborating on the need to integrate timber as a main construction material.

You can follow him here.

Check out his projects here.

Also Read: Building Low-Cost Green Houses Since 1996: Architect Brings Back Mud Homes In India!

Picture Courtesy: Benny Kuriakose

(Edited by Saiqua Sultan)

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Sridhar Radhakrishnan (51), an engineer by profession and environmentalist by passion, was sure that he did not want to live in the house that he had inherited from his parents. “The building was located in one of Trivandrum’s busiest areas, and I wanted some peace of mind and devoid of air and noise pollution. So I started looking for a place that would give my lungs fresh air and less noise,” he informs The Better India.

Interestingly, he did not want to build a new home considering the emissions from all the construction work. He looked for several options but to no avail.

Want to make your home eco-friendly? Check out these cost-effective and 100% natural handcrafted accessories for your home and kitchen!

Finally, he found an empty 21 cent plot on the outskirts of the city in Valiyavila nestled among the rubber estates.

“I loved the plot so much that I decided to construct a house, but without compromising on my environmental ideals. I was deeply inspired by Laurie Baker and his principles of sustainable architecture, and wondered if my home could also be built keeping those in mind,” he quips.

He roped in PB Sajan, an architect at the Centre of Science and Technology for Rural Development to translate his dream into reality. His brief to the architect was clear⁠—to make a house from recycled materials and if destroyed, can be recycled.

Luckily for Sridhar, Sajan complied, and after ten months of construction, Sridhar, his wife, Sobha and son Ambareesh, moved into their new home, a two-story mud home christened ‘Vasantham,’ in July 2017.
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How Recycled Materials Built A Recyclable Home

Sridhar believes that constructing an eco-friendly home is very feasible and comes with innumerable benefits. “Today, there are so many architects, agencies, experts available to shape your home without harming the environment. All you need is a will and some trips to places where you can find recycled materials,” he explains.

Here are some of the techniques that Sajan and his team followed, while building Vasantham.

1) The home was built using the mud-lime mortar technique from the soil or mud of the land. Lime was added to the construction process to make soil durable like cement.

2) “Mani Bhavan, a stately home was being demolished to pave the way for a high-rise. So, I purchased 30,000 waste bricks and roof tiles from the builder. The bathroom tiles were also produced from a sanitary ware shop that was shutting down,” explains Sridhar.

3) Instead of using the chemical paints, the walls in the home were plastered with a concoction of mud and rice husk. This gives an old-charm feel of Kerala-style traditional homes.

4) The wood used to make steps and lampshades are second-hand. The two roofs (on the ground floor and first floor), have also been constructed from second-hand tiles.

5) The parapet and the first-floor roofs were made from bamboo, and bamboo poles were used as pillars to support the ceilings. The bamboo used was purchased from a tribal community.

6) Open verandahs, large windows and rooms and a huge balcony for the first floor, allows natural air and light inside the home.

7) All the electrical appliances like geyser, induction cooker, fans and lights in the home are energy-efficient.

Due to its peculiar design, Sridhar claims that even during the hottest months of the year, the temperature inside the home is almost 10 degrees lower. “It the same during winters as well. It is such a blessing to have the desired temperature without having to use heaters or ACs,” says Sobha.

Sridhar has also created bunds inside the premises to ensure that rainwater collected on ground and rooftop is not wasted. For their water uses, the family has a borewell, and the rainwater collected, seeps into the ground, thus recharging the groundwater tables as well.

The couple also grow their vegetables using organic methods. “These are for our consumption. We  use organic compost and pest repellants and even compost from wet garbage generated in the house,” says Sridhar. Excess vegetables is sold to the Organic Bazaar that runs in the city.

In a world where cement is the go to material for every construction that takes place, Sridhar and Sobha’s house sets an example of how we can go back to our green traditional methods while having a modern touch.

All the images are sourced from Sridhar Radhakrishnan. You can reach him at sridharthanal@gmail.com

Also Read: Chennai Architect Reuses Waste, Uses Mud & Timber to Build Green Homes!

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

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